THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

PRESENTED  BY 

PROF.  CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 
MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


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The 

Conquest  of  Nature 


BY 

HENRY  SMITH  WILLIAMS,  M.D.,  LL.D. 

ASSISTED  BY 

EDWARD  H.  WILLIAMS,  M.D. 


NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 

THE  GOODHUE  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS       -       MDCCCCXII 


Copyright,  1904,  by  HARPER  &  BROTHERS 
Copyright,  1909,  by  THE  GOODHUE  Co. 
Copyright,  1912,  by  THE  GOODHUB  Co. 

A II  rights  reserved. 


TV 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   I 

MAN    AND    NATURE 

The  Conquest  of  Nature,  p.  4 — Man's  use  of  Nature's  gifts,  p.  6 — 
Man  the  "tool-making  animal,"  p.  7 — Science  and  Civilization,  p.  8 
— Clothing  and  artificially  heated  dwellings  of  primitive  man,  p. 
10 — Early  domestication  of  animals,  p.  n — Early  development 
to  the  time  of  gunpowder,  p.  12 — The  coming  of  steam  and  elec- 
tricity, p.  15 — Mechanical  aids  to  the  agriculturist,  p.  19 — The 
development  of  scientific  agriculture,  p.  20 — Difficulties  of  the  early 
manufacturer,  p.  21 — The  development  of  modern  manufactur- 
ing, p.  24 — The  relation  of  work  to  human  development,  p.  25 — 
The  decline  of  drudgery  and  the  new  era  of  labor-saving  devices, 
p.  27. 

CHAPTER    II 

HOW    WORK    IS    DONE 

Primitive  man's  use  of  the  lever,  p.  29 — The  use  of  the  lever  as  con- 
ceived by  Archimedes,  p.  21 — Wheels  and  pulleys,  p.  32 — Other 
means  of  transmitting  power,  p.  35 — Inclined  planes  and  derricks, 
p.  37 — The  steam-scoop,  p.  38 — Friction,  p.  35 — Available  sources 
of  energy,  p.  41. 

CHAPTER    III 

THE    ANIMAL    MACHINE 

The  oldest  machine  in  existence,  p.  43 — The  relation  of  muscle  to 
machinery,  p.  44 — How  muscular  energy  is  applied,  p.  44 — The 
two  types  of  muscles,  p.  45 — How  the  nerve-telegraph  controls  the 
muscles,  p.  47 — The  nature  of  muscular  action,  p.  45 — Applica- 
tions of  muscular  energy,  p.  52 — The  development  of  the  knife 
and  saw,  p.  53 — The  wheel  and  axle,  p.  55 — Modified  levers,  p.  57 
— Domesticated  animals,  p.  59 — Early  application  of  horse-power, 
p.  60 — The  horse-power  as  the  standard  of  the  world's  work,  p.  61. 

[in] 


M363090 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   IV 

THE    WORK   OF    AIR   AND    WATER 

First  use  of  sails  for  propelling  boats,  p.  62 — The  fire  engine  of 
Ctesibus,  p.  63 — Suction  and  pressure  as  studied  by  the  ancients, 
p.  64 — Stttdies  of  air  pressure,  p.  65 — The  striking  demonstration 
of  Von  Guericke,  p.  66 — The  sailing  chariot  of  Servinus,  1600  A.D., 
p.  68 — The  development  of  the  wind-mill,  p.  69 — The  development 
of  the  water-wheel,  p.  70 — The  invention  of  the  turbine,  p.  72 — 
Different  types  of  turbines,  p.  73 — Hydraulic  power  and  its  uses, 
p.  74 — The  hydraulic  elevator,  p.  76 — Recent  water  motors,  p.  77. 

CHAPTER  V 
CAPTIVE  MOLECULES:  THE  STORY  OF  THE  STEAM  ENGINE 

The  development  of  the  steam  engine,  p.  79 — The  manner  in  which 
energy  is  generated  by  steam,  p.  80 — Action  of  cylinder  and  piston, 
p.  8 1 — Early  attempts  to  utilize  steam,  p.  82 — Beginnings  of  mod- 
ern discovery,  p.  83 — The  "engine"  of  the  Marquis  of  Worcester, 
p.  84 — Thomas  Savery's  steam  pump,  p.  85 — Denis  Papin  invents 
the  piston  engine,  p.  88 — Newcomen's  improved  engine,  p.  89 — 
The  use  of  these  engines  in  collieries,  p.  90 — The  wastefulness  of 
such  engines,  p.  92 — The  coming  of  James  Watt,  p.  93 — Early  ex- 
periments of  Watt,  p.  95 — The  final  success  of  Watt's  experiments, 
p.  97 — Some  of  his  early  engines,  p.  98 — Rotary  motion,  p.  99 — 
Watt's  engine,  "Old  Bess,"  p.  101 — Final  improvements  and 
missed  opportunities,  p.  102 — The  personality  of  James  Watt,  p.  107. 

CHAPTER  VI 

THE    MASTER    WORKER 

Improvements  on  Watt's  engines,  p.  no — Engines  dispensing  with 
the  walking  beam,  p.  in — The  development  of  high-pressure 
engines,  p.  112 — Advantages  of  the  high-pressure  engine,  p.  114 
— How  steam  acts  in  the  high-pressure  engine,  p.  116 — Compound 
engines,  p.  117 — Rotary  engines,  p.  119 — Turbine  engines,  p.  124 
— The  Turbinia  and  other  turbine  boats,  p.  125 — The  action  of 
steam  in  the  turbine  engine,  p.  126 — Advantages  of  the  turbine 
engine,  p.  127. 

CHAPTER  VII 

GAS    AND    OIL   ENGINES 

Some  early  gas  engines,  p.  133 — Dr.  Stirling's  hot-air  engine,  p. 
133 — Ericsson's  hot-air  engines,  p.  134 — The  first  practical  gas 
engine,  p.  135 — The  Otto  gas  engine,  p.  136 — Otto's  improvement 

[iv] 


CONTENTS 

by  means  of  compressed  gas,  p.  138 — The  "Otto  cycle,"  p.  139 — 
Adaptation  of  gas  engines  to  automobiles,  p.  140 — Rapid  increase 
in  the  use  of  gas  engines,  p.  141 — Defects  of  the  older  hot-air 
engines,  p.  145 — Recent  improvements  and  possibilities  in  the  use 
of  hot-air  engines,  p.  146. 

CHAPTER    VIII 

THE    SMALLEST    WORKERS 

The  relative  size  of  atoms  and  electrons,  p.  148 — What  is  electricity? 
p.  149 — Franklin's  one-fluid  theory,  p.  150 — Modern  views,  p.  153 
— Cathode  rays  and  the  X-ray,  p.  156 — How  electricity  is  developed, 
p.  159 — The  work  of  the  dynamical  current,  p.  162 — Theories  of 
electrical  action,  p.  165 — Practical  uses  of  electricity,  p.  168. 

CHAPTER   IX 
MAN'S  NEWEST  CO-LABORER:  THE  DYNAMO 

The  mechanism  of  the  dynamo,  p.  173 — The  origin  of  the  dynamo, 
p.  176 — The  work  of  Ampere,  Henry,  and  Faraday,  p.  177 — Per- 
fecting the  dynamo,  p.  178 — A  mysterious  mechanism,  p.  180 — 
Curious  relation  between  magnetism  and  electricity  as  exemplified 
in  the  dynamo,  p.  182. 

CHAPTER  X 

NIAGARA    IN    HARNESS 

The  volume  of  water  at  the  falls,  p.  184 — The  point  at  which  the 
falls  are  "harnessed,"  p.  185 — Within  the  power-house,  p.  186 — 
Penstocks  and  turbines,  p.  188 — A  miraculous  transformation  of 
energy,  p.  189 — Subterranean  tail-races,  p.  191 — The  effect  on  the 
falls,  p.  192 — The  transmission  of  power,  p.  194 — "Step-up"  and 
"step-down"  transformers,  p.  198. 

CHAPTER   XI 

THE    BANISHMENT    OF    NIGHT 

Primitive  torch  and  open  lamp,  p.  202 — Tallow  candle  and  per- 
fected lamp,  p.  205 — Gas  lighting,  p.  207 — The  incandescent  gas 
mantle,  p.  208 — Early  gas  mantles,  p.  209 — How  the  incandescent 
gas  mantle  is  made,  p.  211 — The  introduction  of  acetylene  gas,  p. 
212 — Chemistry  of  acetylene  gas,  p.  214 — Practical  gas-making, 
p.  215 — The  triumph  of  electricity,  p.  218 — Davy  and  the  first 
electric  light,  p.  220 — Helpful  discoveries  in  electricity,  p.  222 — 
The  Jablochkoff  candle,  p.  223 — Defects  of  the  Jablochkoff  candle, 
p.  225 — The  improved  arc  light,  p.  226 — Edison  and  the  incandescent 
lamp,  p.  228 — Difficulties  encountered  in  finding  the  proper  ma- 


CONTENTS 

terial  for  a  practical  filament,  p.  230 — " Parchmentized  thread" 
filament,  p.  233 — The  tungsten  lamp,  p.  234 — The  mercury-vapor 
light  of  Peter  Cooper  Hewitt,  p.  236 — Advantages  and  peculiar- 
ities  of  this  light,  p.  240. 

CHAPTER   XII 

THE    MINERAL    DEPTHS 

Early  mining  methods,  p.  242 — Prospecting  and  locating  mines,  p. 
243 — "Booming,"  p.  246 — Conditions  to  be  considered  in  mining, 
p.  248 — Dangerous  gases  in  mines,  p.  249 — Artificial  lights  and 
lighting,  p.  251 — Ventilation  and  drainage,  p.  252 — Electric  ma- 
chinery in  mining,  p.  253 — Electric  drills,  p.  254 — Traction  in 
mining,  p.  256 — Various  types  of  electric  motors,  p.  257 — "Tel- 
phers," p.  261 — Electric  mining  pumps,  p.  263 — Some  remark- 
able demonstrations  of  durability  of  electric  pumps,  p.  265 — Elec- 
tricity in  coal  mining,  p.  266 — Electric  lighting  in  mines,  p.  269. 

CHAPTER   XIII 

THE    AGE     OF     STEEL 

Rapid  growth  of  the  iron  industry  in  recent  years,  p.  271 — The 
Lake  Superior  mines,  p.  272 — Methods  of  mining,  p.  273 — "Open- 
pit"  mining,  p.  274 — Mining  with  the  steam  shovel,  p.  276 — From 
mine  to  furnace,  p.  278 — Methods  of  transportation,  p.  279 — Ves- 
sels of  special  construction,  p.  281 — The  conversion  of  iron  ore 
into  iron  and  steel,  p.  283 — Blast  furnaces,  p.  284 — Poisonous  gases 
and  their  effect  upon  the  workmen,  p.  286 — From  pig  iron  to  steel, 
p.  287 — Modern  methods  of  producing  pig  iron,  p.  288 — The  Besse- 
mer converter,  p.  289 — Sir  Henry  Bessemer,  p.  291 — The  "Besse- 
mer-Mushet"  process,  p.  293 — Open-hearth  method,  p.  294 — Alloy 
steels,  p.  295. 

CHAPTER   XIV 

SOME    RECENT    TRIUMPHS    OF    APPLIED    SCIENCE 

The  province  of  electro-chemistry,  p.  298 — Linking  the  laboratory 
with  the  workshop,  p.  299 — Soda  manufactories  at  Niagara  Falls, 
p.  300 — Producing  aluminum  by  the  electrolytic  process,  p.  300 — 
Old  and  new  methods  compared,  p.  301— Nitrogen  from  the  air, 
P-  3°3 — What  this  discovery  means  to  the  food  industries  of  the 
world,  p.  304 — Prof.  Birkeland's  method,  p.  307 — Another  method 
of  nitrogen  fixation,  p.  309 — Cost  of  production,  p.  312 — Elec- 
trical energy,  p.  313 — Production  of  high  temperatures  with  the 
electric  arc,  p.  314 — The  production  of  artificial  diamonds  by  the 
explosion  of  cordite,  p.  315 — Industrial  problems  of  to-day  and 
to-morrow,  p.  316. 


[vi] 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

A     PRIMITIVE     USE     OF    THE     ANIMAL     MACHINE     THAT    IS 

STILL    IN    VOGUE    IN    MANY    EUROPEAN    COUNTRIES  Frontispiece 

HORSE    AND    CATTLE    POWER Facing  p.      Z2 

CRANES    AND    DERRICKS 38 

A    BELGIAN    MILK-WAGON $6 

TWO     APPARATUSES     FOR    THE     UTILIZATION     OF     ANIMAL 

POWER 6O 

WINDMILLS  OF  ANCIENT  AND  MODERN  TYPES  ....'*        68 

WATER  WHEELS 7« 

HYDRAULIC  PRESS  AND  HYDRAULIC  CAPSTAN     ....  76 

THOMAS  SAVERY'S  STEAM  ENGINE "         86 

DIAGRAMS  OF  EARLY  ATTEMPTS  TO  UTILIZE  THE  POWER 

OF    STEAM "             88 

A    MODEL    OF    THE    NEWCOMEN    ENGINE "             92 

WATT'S  EARLIEST  TYPE  OF  PUMPING-ENGINE    .     .     .     .  "         96 

WATT'S  ROTATIVE  ENGINE "       100 

JAMES  WATT "       108 

OLD  IDEAS  AND  NEW  APPLIED  TO  BOILER  CONSTRUCTION  "        114 

COMPOUND  ENGINES "       Il8 

ROTARY    ENGINES "          122 

THE   ORIGINAL  PARSONS*   TURBINE   ENGINE   AND  THE   REC- 
ORD-BREAKING   SHIP   FOR   WHICH    IT    IS   RESPONSIBLE  "          128 

GAS    AND    OIL    ENGINES "           136 

AN  ELECTRIC  TRAIN   AND  THE   DYNAMO  THAT   PROPELS   IT  "          174 

[vii] 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


WILDE'S  SEPARATELY  EXCITED  DYNAMO       ....     Facing  p.  178 

THE    EVOLUTION    OF    THE    DYNAMO "  igo 

VIEW    IN    ONE    OF    THE    POWER    HOUSES    AT    NIAGARA          .  "  186 

ELECTRICAL   TRANSFORMERS "  198 

THOMAS   A.    EDISON    AND   THE    DYNAMO   THAT    GENERATED 

THE    FIRST   COMMERCIAL   INCANDESCENT   LIGHT      .       .  "  228 

A   FLINT-AND-STEEL  OUTFIT,   AND   A   MINER'S   STEEL   MILL  "  248 
THE     LOCOMOTIVE     "  PUFFING     BILLY*'     AND     A     MODERN 

COLLIERY    TROLLEY "  258 


[viiil 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 


IN  the  earlier  volumes  we  have  been  concerned 
with  the  growth  of  knowledge.  For  the  most 
part  the  scientific  delvers  whose  efforts  have  held 
our  attention  have  been  tacitly  unmindful,  or  even  ex- 
plicitly contemptuous,  of  the  influence  upon  practical 
life  of  the  phenomena  to  the  investigation  of  which 
they  have  devoted  their  lives.  They  were  and  are 
obviously  seekers  of  truth  for  the  mere  love  of  truth. 

But  the  phenomena  of  nature  are  not  dissociated 
in  fact,  however  much  we  may  attempt  to  localize  and 
classify  them.  And  so  it  chances  that  even  the  most 
visionary  devotee  of  abstract  science  is  forever  being 
carried  into  fields  of  investigation  trenching  closely 
upon  the  practicalities  of  every-day  life.  A  Black 
investigating  the  laws  of  heat  is  preparing  the  way 
explicitly,  however  unconsciously,  for  a  Watt  with  his 
perfected  mechanism  of  the  steam  engine. 

Similarly  a  Davy  working  at  the  Royal  Institution 
with  his  newly  invented  batteries,  and  intent  on  the 
discovery  of  new  elements  and  the  elucidation  of  new 
principles,  is  the  direct  forerunner  of  Jablochkoff, 
Brush,  and  Edison  with  their  commercial  revolution 
in  the  production  of  artificial  light. 

Again  Oersted  and  Faraday,  earnestly  seeking  out 

VOL.    VI. 1  [  I  ] 


THE   CONQUEST   OF   NATURE 

the  fundamental  facts  as  to  the  relations  of  electricity 
and  magnetism,  invent  mechanisms  which,  though  they 
seem  but  laboratory  toys,  are  the  direct  forerunners 
of  the  modern  dynamos  that  take  so  large  a  share  in  the 
world's  work. 

In  a  word,  all  along  the  line  there  is  the  closest  as- 
sociation between  what  are  commonly  called  the 
theoretical  sciences  and  what  with  only  partial  pro- 
priety are  termed  the  applied  sciences.  The  linkage 
of  one  with  the  other  must  never  be  forgotten  by 
anyone  who  would  truly  apprehend  the  status  of 
those  practical  sciences  which  have  revolutionized 
the  civilization  of  the  nineteenth  and  twentieth  cen- 
turies in  its  most  manifest  aspects. 

Nevertheless  there  is,  to  casual  inspection,  a  some- 
what radical  distinction  between  theoretical  and  prac- 
tical aspects  of  science — just  as  there  are  obvious 
differences  between  two  sides  of  a  shield.  And  as 
the  theoretical  aspects  of  science  have  largely  claimed 
our  attention  hitherto,  so  its  practical  aspects  will  be 
explicitly  put  forward  in  the  pages  that  follow.  In 
the  present  volume  we  are  concerned  with  those  prim- 
itive applications  of  force  through  which  man  early 
learned  to  add  to  his  working  efficiency,  and  with  the 
elaborate  mechanisms — turbine  wheels,  steam  engines, 
dynamos — through  which  he  has  been  enabled  to 
multiply  his  powers  until  it  is  scarcely  exaggeration 
to  say  that  he  has  made  all  Nature  subservient  to  his 
will.  It  is  this  view  which  justifies  the  title  of  the  vol- 
ume, which  might  with  equal  propriety  have  been 
termed  the  Story  of  the  World's  Work. 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 


MAN  AND  NATURE 

^^^t  T^OUNG  men,"  said  a  wise  physician  in  ad- 
^^^ 

dressing  a  class  of  graduates  in  medicine, 

"you  are  about  to  enter  the  battle  of  life. 
Note  that  I  say  the  ' battle'  of  life.  Not  a  play- 
ground, but  a  battlefield  is  before  you.  It  is  a  hard 
contest — a  battle  royal.  Make  no  mistake  as  to  that. 
Vour  studies  here  have  furnished  your  equipment;  now 
you  must  go  forth  each  to  fight  for  himself." 

The  same  words  might  be  said  to  every  neophyte 
in  whatever  walk  of  life.  The  pursuit  of  every  trade, 
every  profession  is  a  battle — a  struggle  for  existence 
and  for  supremacy.  Partly  it  is  a  battle  against  fellow 
men;  partly  against  the  contending  powers  of  Nature. 
The  physician  meets  rivalry  from  his  brothers;  but 
his  chief  battle  is  with  disease.  In  the  creative  and 
manufacturing  fields  which  will  chiefly  concern  us  in 
the  following  volumes,  it  is  the  powers  of  Nature  that 
furnish  an  ever-present  antagonism. 

No  stone  can  be  lifted  above  another,  to  make  the 
crudest  wall  or  dwelling,  but  Nature — represented 
by  her  power  of  gravitation — strives  at  once  to  pull  it 
down  again.  No  structure  is  completed  before  the 

[3] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

elements  are  at  work  defacing  it,  preparing  its  slow 
but  certain  ruin.  Summer  heat  and  winter  cold  expand 
and  contract  materials  of  every  kind;  rain  and  wind 
wear  and  warp  and  twist;  the  oxygen  of  the  air  gnaws 
into  stone  and  iron  alike; — in  a  word,  all  the  elements 
are  at  work  undoing  what  man  has  accomplished. 

THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    EXISTENCE 

In  the  field  of  the  agriculturist  it  is  the  same  story. 
The  earth  which  brings  forth  its  crop  of  unwholesome 
weeds  so  bountifully,  resists  man's  approaches  when  he 
strives  to  bring  it  under  cultivation.  Only  by  the  most 
careful  attention  can  useful  grains  be  made  to  grow 
where  the  wildlings  swarmed  in  profusion.  Not  only 
do  wind  and  rain,  blighting  heat  and  withering  cold 
menace  the  crops;  but  weeds  invade  the  fields,  the 
germs  of  fungoid  pests  lurk  everywhere;  and  myriad 
insects  attack  orchard  and  meadow  and  grain  field 
in  devastating  legions. 

Similarly  the  beasts  which  were  so  rugged  and  re- 
sistant while  in  the  wild  state,  become  tender  and 
susceptible  to  disease  when  made  useful  by  domestica- 
tion. Aforetime  they  roamed  at  large,  braving  every 
temperature  and  thriving  in  all  weathers.  But  now 
they  must  be  housed  and  cared  for  so  tenderly  that 
they  become,  as  Thoreau  said,  the  keepers  of  men, 
rather  than  kept  by  men,  so  much  more  independent 
are  they  than  their  alleged  owners.  Tender  of  con- 
stitution, domesticated  beasts  must  be  housed,  to  pro- 
tect them  from  the  blasts  in  which  of  yore  their  forebears 

[4] 


MAN   AND   NATURE 

revelled;  and  man  must  slave  day  in  and  day  out  to 
prepare  food  to  meet  the  requirements  of  their  pam- 
pered appetites. 

He  must  struggle,  too,  to  protect  them  from  disease, 
and  must  care  for  them  in  time  of  illness  as  sedulously 
as  he  cares  for  his  own  kith  and  kin.  Truly  the  ox 
is  keeper  of  the  man,  and  the  seeming  conquest  that 
man  has  wrought  has  cost  him  dear. 

But  of  course  the  story  has  another  side.  After  all, 
Nature  is  not  so  malevolent  as  at  first  glance  she  seems. 
She  has  opposed  man  at  every  stage  of  his  attempted 
progress;  yet  at  the  same  time  she  has  supplied  him 
all  his  weapons  for  waging  war  upon  her.  Her  great 
power  of  gravitation  opposes  every  effort  he  makes; 


yet  without  that  same  power  he  could  do  nothing — he 
could  not  walk  or  stay  upon  the  earth  even;  and  no 
structure  that  he  builds  would  hold  in  place  for  an 
instant. 

So,  too,  the  wind  that  smites  him  and  tears  at  his 
handiwork,  may  be  made  to  serve  the  purposes  of  turn- 
ing his  windmills  and  supplying  him  with  power. 

The  water  will  serve  a  like  purpose  in  turning  his 
mills;  and,  changed  to  steam  with  the  aid  of  Nature's 
store  of  coal,  will  make  his  steam  engines  and  dynamos 
possible.  Even  the  lightning  he  will  harness  and  make 
subject  to  his  will  in  the  telegraphic  currents  and 
dynamos. 

And  in  the  fields,  the  grains  which  man  struggles  so 
arduously  to  produce  are  after  all  no  thing  of  his  creating. 
They  are  only  adopted  products  of  Nature,  which  he 
has  striven  to  make  serve  his  purpose  by  growing  them 

[si 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

under  artificial  conditions.  So,  too,  the  domesticated 
beasts  are  creatures  that  belong  in  the  wilds  and  in 
distant  lands.  Man  has  brought  them,  in  defiance 
of  Nature,  to  uncongenial  climes,  and  made  them  serve 
as  workers  and  as  food-suppliers  where  Nature  alone 
could  not  support  them.  Turn  loose  the  cow  and 
the  horse  to  forage  for  themselves  here  in  the  inhospit- 
able north,  and  they  would  starve.  They  survive 
because  man  helps  them  to  combat  the  adverse  con- 
ditions imposed  by  Nature,  yet  no  one  of  them  could 
live  for  an  hour  were  not  the  vital  capacities  supplied  by 
Nature  still  in  control. 

Everywhere,  then,  it  is  the  opposing  of  Nature,  up 
to  certain  limits,  with  the  aid  of  Nature's  own  tools, 
that  constitutes  man's  work  in  the  world.  Just  in 
proportion  as  he  bends  the  elements  to  meet  his 
needs,  transforms  the  plants  and  animals,  defies  and 
exceeds  the  limitations  of  primeval  Nature — just  in 
proportion  as  he  conquers  Nature,  in  a  word,  is  he 
civilized. 

Barbaric  man  is  called  a  child  of  Nature  with  full 
reason.  He  must  accept  what  Nature  offers.  But 
civilized  man  is  the  child  grown  to  adult  stature,  and 
able  in  a  manner  to  control,  to  dominate — if  you  please 
to  conquer — the  parent. 

If  we  were  to  seek  the  means  by  which  developing 
man  has  gradually  achieved  this  conquest,  we  should 
find  it  in  the  single  word,  Tools;  that  is  to  say,  machines 
for  utilizing  the  powers  of  Nature,  and,  as  it  were, 
multiplying  them  for  man's  benefit.  So  unique  is  the 
capacity  that  man  exerts  in  this  direction,  that  he  has 

[6] 


MAN   AND   NATURE 

been  described  as  "the  tool-making  animal/'  The 
description  is  absolutely  accurate;  it  is  inclusive  and 
exclusive.  No  non-human  animal  makes  any  form 
of  implement  to  aid  it  in  performing  its  daily  work; 
and  contrariwise  every  human  tribe,  however  low  its 
stage  of  savagery,  makes  use  of  more  or  less  crude 
forms  of  implements.  There  must  have  been  a  time, 
to  be  sure,  when  there  existed  a  man  so  low  in  intelli- 
gence that  he  had  not  put  into  execution  the  idea  of 
making  even  the  simplest  tool.  But  the  period  when 
such  a  man  existed  so  vastly  antedates  all  records  that 
it  need  not  here  concern  us.  For  the  purpose  of  classi- 
fying all  existing  men,  and  all  the  tribes  of  men  of 
which  history  and  pre-historic  archaeology  give  us  any 
record,  the  definition  of  man  as  the  tool-making  animal 
is  accurate  and  sufficient. 

At  first  thought  it  might  seem  that  an  equally  com- 
prehensive definition  might  describe  man  as  the  working 
animal.  But  a  moment's  consideration  shows  the 
fallacy  of  such  a  suggestion.  Man  is,  to  be  sure,  the 
animal  that  works  effectively,  thanks  to  the  implements 
with  which  he  has  learned  to  provide  himself;  but  he 
shares  with  all  animate  creatures  the  task  of  laboring 
for  his  daily  necessities.  This  is  indeed  a  work-a-day 
world,  and  no  creature  can  live  in  it  without  taking 
its  share  in  that  perpetual  conflict  which  bodily  neces- 
sities make  imperative.  Most  lower  animals  confine 
their  work  to  the  mere  securing  of  food,  and  to  the 
construction  of  rude  habitations.  Some,  indeed,  go 
a  step  farther  and  lay  up  stores  of  food,  in  chance  bur- 
rows or  hollow  trees;  a  few  even  manufacture  rela- 

[7] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

tively  artistic  and  highly  effective  receptacles,  as 
illustrated  by  the  honeycomb  made  by  the  bees  and  their 
allies.  Again,  certain  animals,  of  which  the  birds  are 
the  best  representatives,  construct  temporary  struc- 
tures for  the  purpose  of  rearing  their  young  that  attain 
a  relatively  high  degree  of  artistic  perfection.  The 
Baltimore  oriole  weaves  a  cloth  of  vegetable  fibre 
that  is  certainly  a  wonderful  texture  to  be  made  with 
the  aid  of  claws  and  bill  alone.  It  may  be  doubted 
whether  human  hands,  unaided  by  implements,  could 
duplicate  it.  But  it  is  crude  enough  compared  with 
even  the  coarsest  cloth  which  barbaric  races  manu- 
facture with  the  aid  of  implements. 

So  it  is  with  any  comparison  of  animal  work  with 
the  work  of  man,  in  whatever  field.  The  crudest 
human  endeavor  is  superior  to  the  best  non-human 
efforts;  and  the  explanation  is  found  always  in  the 
fact  that  the  ingenuity  of  man  has  enabled  him  to  find 
artificial  aids  that  add  to  his  power  of  manipulation. 
So  large  a  share  have  these  artificial  aids  taken  in 
man's  evolution,  that  it  has  long  been  customary,  in 
studying  the  development  of  civilization,  to  make  the 
use  of  various  types  of  implements  a  test  of  varying 
stages  of  human  progress. 

SCIENCE  AND  CIVILIZATION 

The  student  of  primitive  life  assures  us,  basing  his 
statements  on  the  archaeological  records,  that  there  was 
a  time  when  the  most  advanced  of  mankind  had  no 
tools  made  of  better  material  than  chipped  stone.  By 


MAJsT   AND   NATURE 

common  consent  that  time  is  spoken  of  as  the  Rough 
Stone  Age. 

We  are  told  that  then  in  the  course  of  immeasurable 
centuries  man  learned  to  polish  his  stone  implements, 
doubtless  by  rubbing  them  against  another  stone,  or 
perhaps  with  the  aid  of  sand,  thus  producing  a  new  type 
of  implement  which  has  given  its  name  to  the  Age  of 
Smooth  or  Polished  Stone. 

Then  after  other  long  centuries  came  a  time  when 
man  had  learned  to  smelt  the  softer  metals,  and  the  new 
civilization  which  now  supplanted  the  old,  and,  thanks 
to  the  new  implements,  advanced  upon  it  immeasurably, 
is  called  the  Age  of  Bronze. 

At  last  man  learned  to  accomplish  the  wonderful 
feat  of  smelting  the  intractable  metal,  iron,  and  in  so 
doing  produced  implements  harder,  sharper,  and 
cheaper  than  his  implements  of  bronze;  and  when 
this  crowning  feat  had  been  accomplished,  the  Age 
of  Iron  was  ushered  in. 

By  common  consent,  students  of  the  history  of  the 
evolution  of  society  accept  these  successive  ages,  each 
designated  by  the  type  of  implements  with  which  the 
world's  work  was  accomplished,  as  representing  real 
and  definite  stages  of  human  progress,  and  as  needing 
no  better  definition  than  that  supplied  by  the  different 
types  of  implements. 

Could  the  archaeologist  trace  the  stream  of  human 
progress  still  farther  back  toward  its  source,  he  would 
find  doubtless  that  there  were  several  great  epochal 
inventions  preceding  the  time  of  the  Rough  Stone 
Age,  each  of  which  was  in  its  way  as  definitive  and  as 

[9] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF   NATURE 

revolutionary  in  its  effects  upon  society,  as  these  later 
inventions  which  we  have  just  named.  To  attempt 
to  define  them  clearly  is  to  enter  the  field  of  uncertainty, 
but  two  or  three  conjectures  may  be  hazarded  that 
cannot  be  very  wide  of  the  truth. 

It  is  clear,  for  example,  that  if  we  go  back  in  imagi- 
nation to  the  very  remotest  ancestors  of  man  that  can 
be  called  human,  we  must  suppose  a  vast  and  revo- 
lutionary stage  of  progress  to  have  been  ushered  hi  by 
the  first  race  of  men  that  learned  to  make  habitual  use 
of  the  simplest  implement,  such  as  a  mere  club.  When 
man  had  learned  to  wield  a  club  and  to  throw  a  stone, 
and  to  use  a  stone  held  in  the  hand  to  break  the  shell 
of  a  nut,  he  had  attained  a  stage  of  culture  which  augured 
great  things  for  the  future.  Out  of  the  idea  of  wielded 
club  and  hurled  stone  were  to  grow  in  time  the  ideas 
of  hammer  and  axe  and  spear  and  arrow. 

Then  there  came  a  time — no  one  dare  guess  how 
many  thousands  of  years  later — when  man  learned  to 
cover  his  body  with  the  skin  of  an  animal,  and  thus 
to  become  in  a  measure  freed  from  the  thraldom  of 
the  weather.  He  completed  his  enfranchisement  by 
learning  to  avail  himself  of  the  heat  provided  by  an 
artificial  fire.  Equipped  with  these  two  marvelous 
inventions  he  was  able  to  extend  the  hitherto  narrow 
bounds  of  his  dwelling-place,  passing  northward  to 
the  regions  which  at  an  earlier  stage  of  his  development 
he  dared  not  penetrate.  Under  stress  of  more  exhil- 
arating climatic  conditions,  he  developed  new  ideals 
and  learned  to  overcome  new  difficulties;  developing 
both  a  material  civilization  and  the  advanced  mentality 

[10] 


MAN   AND   NATURE 

that  is  its  counterpart,  as  he  doubtless  never  would 
have  done  had  he  remained  subject  to  the  more  pam- 
pering conditions  of  the  tropics. 

The  most  important,  perhaps,  of  the  new  things 
which  he  was  taught  by  the  seemingly  adverse  condi- 
tions of  an  inhospitable  climate,  was  to  provide  for 
the  needs  of  a  wandering  life  and  of  varying  seasons 
by  domesticating  animals  that  could  afford  him  an 
ever-present  food  supply.  In  so  doing  he  ceased  to  be 
a  mere  fisher  and  hunter,  and  became  a  herdsman. 
One  other  step,  and  he  had  conceived  the  idea  of  pro- 
viding for  himself  a  supply  of  vegetable  foods,  to  take 
the  place  of  that  which  nature  had  provided  so  boun- 
tifully in  his  old  home  in  the  tropics.  When  this  idea 
was  put  into  execution  man  became  an  agriculturist,  and 
had  entered  upon  the  high  road  to  civilization. 

All  these  stages  of  progress  had  been  entered  upon 
prior  to  the  time  of  which  the  oldest  known  remains 
of  the  cave-dweller  give  us  knowledge.  It  were  idle 
to  conjecture  the  precise  sequence  in  which  these  earliest 
steps  toward  civilization  were  taken,  and  even  more 
idle  to  conjecture  the  length  of  time  which  elapsed 
between  one  step  and  its  successor.  But  all  questions 
of  precise  sequence  aside,  it  is  clear  that  here  were 
four  or  five  great  ages  succeeding  one  to  another,  that 
marked  the  onward  and  upward  progress  of  our  prim- 
eval ancestor  before  he  achieved  the  stage  of  devel- 
opment that  enabled  him  to  leave  permanent  records 
of  his  existence.  And — what  is  particularly  signifi- 
cant from  our  present  standpoint — it  is  equally  clear 
that  each  of  the  great  ages  thus  vaguely  outlined  was 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

dependent  upon  an  achievement  or  an  invention  that 
facilitated  the  carrying  out  of  that  scheme  of  never- 
ending  work  which  from  first  to  last  has  been  man's 
portion.  How  to  labor  more  efficiently,  more  produc- 
tively; how  to  produce  more  of  the  necessaries  and  of 
the  luxuries  that  man's  physical  and  mental  being 
demands,  with  less  expenditure  of  toil — that  from  first 
to  last  has  been  the  ever-insistent  problem.  And 
the  answer  has  been  found  always  through  the  develop- 
ment of  some  new  species  of  mechanism,  some  new 
labor-saving  device,  some  ingenious  manipulation  of 
the  powers  of  Nature. 

If,  turning  from  the  hypothetical  period  of  our 
primitive  ancestor,  we  consider  the  sweep  of  secure 
and  relatively  recent  history,  we  shall  find  that  precisely 
the  same  thing  holds.  If  we  contrast  the  civilization 
of  Old  Egypt  and  Babylonia — the  oldest  civilizations  of 
which  we  have  any  secure  record — with  the  civilization 
of  to-day,  we  shall  find  that  the  differences  between 
the  one  and  the  other  are  such  as  are  due  to  new  and 
improved  methods  of  accomplishing  the  world's  work. 

Indeed,  if  we  view  the  subject  carefully,  it  will  be- 
come more  and  more  evident  that  the  only  real  progress 
that  the  historic  period  has  to  show  is  such  as  has  grown 
directly  from  the  development  of  new  mechanical 
inventions.  The  more  we  study  the  ancient  civiliza- 
tions the  more  we  shall  be  struck  with  their  marvelous 
resemblance,  as  regards  mental  life,  to  the  civilization 
of  to-day.  In  their  moral  and  spiritual  ideals,  the 
ancient  Egyptians  were  as  brothers  to  the  modern 
Europeans.  In  philosophy,  in  art,  in  literature,  the 


MAN  AND  NATURE 

Age  of  Pericles  established  standards  that  still  remain 
unexcelled.  In  all  the  subtleties  of  thought,  we  feel 
that  the  Greeks  had  reached  intellectual  bounds  that 
we  have  not  been  able  to  extend. 

But  when,  on  the  other  hand,  we  consider  the  ma- 
terial civilization  of  the  two  epochs,  we  find  contrasts 
that  are  altogether  startling.  The  little  world  of  the 
Greeks  nestled  about  the  Mediterranean,  bounded  on 
every  side  at  a  distance  of  a  few  hundred  leagues  by  a 
terra  incognita.  The  philosophers  who  had  reached 
the  confines  of  the  field  of  thought,  had  but  the  narrow- 
est knowledge  of  the  geography  of  our  globe.  They 
traversed  at  best  a  few  petty  miles  of  its  surface  on 
foot  or  in  carts;  and  they  navigated  the  Mediterranean 
Sea,  or  at  most  coasted  out  a  little  way  beyond  the 
Pillars  of  Hercules  in  boats  chiefly  propelled  by  oars. 
By  dint  of  great  industry  they  produced  a  really  aston- 
ishing number  of  books,  but  the  production  of  each  one 
was  a  long  and  laborious  task,  and  the  aggregate  num- 
ber indited  during  the  Age  of  Pericles  in  all  the  world 
was  perhaps  not  greater  than  an  afternoon's  output 
of  a  modern  printing  press. 

In  a  word,  these  men  of  the  classical  period  of 
antiquity,  great  as  were  their  mental,  artistic,  and 
moral  achievements,  were  as  children  in  those  matters 
of  practical  mechanics  upon  which  the  outward  evi- 
dences of  civilization  depend.  Should  we  find  a  race 
of  people  to-day  in  some  hitherto  unexplored  portion 
of  the  earth — did  such  unexplored  portions  still  exist— 
living  a  life  comparable  to  that  of  the  Age  of  Pericles,  we 
should  marvel  no  doubt  at  their  artistic  achievements, 

[13] 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

while  at  the  same  time  regarding  them  as  scarcely 
better  than  barbarians.  Indeed  this  is  more  than 
unsupported  hypothesis;  for  has  it  not  been  difficult 
for  the  Western  world  to  admit  the  truly  civilized  con- 
dition of  the  Chinese,  simply  because  that  highly  in- 
tellectual race  of  Orientals  has  not  kept  abreast  of  the 
Occidental  changes  in  applied  mechanics?  Say  what 
we  will,  this  is  the  standard  which  we  of  the  Western 
world  apply  as  the  test  of  civilization. 

If,  sweeping  over  in  •  retrospect  the  history  of  the 
world  since  the  time  when  the  Egyptian  and  Babylonian 
civilizations  were  at  their  height,  we  attempt  some  such 
classification  of  the  stages  of  progress  as  that  which 
we  a  moment  ago  applied  to  pre-historic  times,  we 
shall  be  led  to  some  rather  startling  conclusions.  In 
the  broadest  view,  it  will  appear  that  the  age  which 
ushered  in  the  historic  period  continued  unbroken 
by  the  advance  of  any  great  revolutionary  invention 
throughout  the  long  centuries  of  pre-Christian  antiquity, 
and  well  into  the  so-called  Middle  Ages  of  our  newer 
era.  Then  came  the  invention  of  gunpowder,  or  at 
least  its  introduction  to  the  Western  world — since  the 
Chinaman  here  lays  claim  to  vague  centuries  of  prece- 
dence. Following  hard  upon  the  introduction  of 
gunpowder,  with  its  capacity  to  add  to  the  destructive 
efficiency  of  man's  most  sinister  form  of  labor,  came 
a  mechanism  no  less  epoch-making  in  a  far  different 
field — the  printing  press. 

But  even  these  inventions,  great  as  was  their  influ- 
ence upon  the  progress  of  civilization,  can  scarcely  be 
considered,  it  seems  to  me,  as  taking  rank  with  the 


MAN   AND  NATURE 

great  epochal  discoveries  that  gave  their  names  to  the 
preceding  ages.  Nor  can  any  invention  of  the  six- 
teenth or  seventeenth  century  be  hailed  as  really 
ushering  in  a  new  era.  The  invention  for  which  that 
honor  was  reserved  was  a  development  of  the  eighteenth 
century;  and  did  not  come  fully  to  its  heritage  until 
the  early  days  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The  inven- 
tion was  the  application  of  steam  to  the  purposes  of 
mechanics.  When  this  application  was  made,  as  wide 
a  gap  was  crossed  as  that  which  separated  the  Stone 
Age  from  the  Age  of  Metal;  then  the  epoch  in  which 
the  world  was  living  when  history  begins  was  brought 
to  a  close,  and  a  new  era,  the  Age  of  Steam,  was  ushered 
in. 

Scarcely  had  the  world  begun  to  adjust  itself  to  the 
new  conditions  of  the  Age  of  Steam,  when  yet  another 
power  was  made  subservient  to  man's  needs,  and  the 
Age  of  Steam  was  supplemented,  not  to  say  supplanted, 
by  the  Age  of  Electricity.  Of  course  the  new  progres- 
sive movements  did  not  necessarily  imply  elimi- 
nation of  old  conditions;  they  imply  merely  the 
subordination  of  old  powers  to  newer  and  better  ones. 
Stone  implements  by  no  means  ceased  to  have  utility 
at  once  when  metal  implements  came  into  vogue. 
Bronze  long  held  its  own  against  iron,  and  still  has  its 
utility.  And  iron  itself  finds  but  an  added  sphere  of 
usefulness  in  the  Age  of  Steam  and  Electricity. 

All  great  changes  are  relatively  slow.  It  is  only  as 
we  look  back  upon  them  and  view  them  in  perspective 
that  they  seem  cataclysmic.  Gunpowder  did  not  at 
once  supplant  the  crossbow,  and  the  cannon  was  long 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

held  to  be  inferior  to  the  catapult.  The  printed  book 
did  not  instantly  make  its  way  against  the  work  of  the 
scribe.  Neither  did  the  steam  engine  immediately  sup- 
plant water  power  and  the  direct  application  of  human 
labor.  But  in  each  case  the  new  invention  virtually  rang 
the  death  knell  of  the  old  method  from  the  hour  of  its 
inauguration,  and  the  end  was  no  less  sure  because  it 
was  delayed.  And  it  requires  no  great  powers  of 
divination  to  foretell  that  in  the  coming  age,  the  electric 
dynamo  driven  by  water  power  may  take  the  place  of 
the  steam  engine.  The  Age  of  Steam  may  pass,  with 
only  at  most  a  few  generations  of  domination.  And 
it  is  within  the  possibilities  that  the  Age  of  Electricity 
will  scarcely  come  into  its  own  before  it  may  be  dis- 
placed by  an  Age  of  Radio-Activity.  To  press  that 
point,  however,  would  be  to  enter  the  field  of  prophecy, 
which  is  no  part  of  my  present  purpose. 

All  that  I  have  wished  to  point  out  is  that  for  some 
thousands  of  years  after  man  learned  to  make  imple- 
ments of  iron,  the  industrial  world  and  the  human 
civilization  that  depends  upon  it,  pursued  a  relatively 
static  course,  like  a  broad,  sluggish  current,  with  no  new 
revolutionary  discovery  to  impel  it  into  new  channels; 
and  that  then  one  revolutionary  discovery  succeeded 
another  with  bewildering  suddenness,  so  that  we  of 
the  early  days  of  the  twentieth  century  are  farther 
removed,  in  an  industrial  way,  from  our  forerunners 
of  two  hundred  years  ago,  than  those  children  of  the 
eighteenth  century  were  from  the  earliest  civilization 
that  ever  developed  on  our  globe.  Indeed,  this  startling 
contrast  would  still  hold  true,  were  we  to  consider  the 

[16] 


MAN  AND  NATURE 

newest  era  as  compassing  only  the  period  of  a  single 
life.  There  are  men  living  to-day  who  were  born  in 
that  epoch  when  the  steam  engine  was  for  the  first 
time  used  to  turn  the  wheels  of  factories.  There  are 
many  men  who  can  well  remember  the  first  practical 
application  of  steam  to  railway  traffic.  Hosts  of  men 
can  remember  when  the  first  commercial  message  was 
transmitted  by  electricity  along  a  wire.  Even  middle- 
aged  men  recall  the  first  cable  message  that  linked  the 
old  world  with  the  new.  And  the  application  of  the 
dynamo  to  the  purposes  of  the  world's  work  is  an  affair 
of  but  yesterday. 

The  historian  of  the  future,  casting  his  eye  back  across 
the  long  perspective  of  history,  will  find  civilized  man 
pursuing  an  even  and  unbroken  course  across  the 
ages  from  the  time  of  the  pyramids  of  Egypt  to  about 
the  time  of  the  French  Revolution.  There  will  be 
no  dearth  of  incident  to  claim  his  attention  in  the  way 
of  wars  and  conquests,  and  changing  creeds,  and  the  rise 
and  fall  of  nations,  each  pursuing  virtually  the  same 
course  of  growth  and  decay  as  all  the  others.  But  when 
he  comes  to  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  it  will 
not  be  the  social  paroxysm  of  a  nation,  or  the  meteoric 
career  of  a  Napoleon  that  will  claim  his  attention  so 
much  as  the  introduction  of  that  new  method  of  utiliz- 
ing the  powers  of  Nature  which  found  its  expression  in 
the  mechanism  called  the  steam  engine. 

If  the  name  of  any  individual  stands  out  as  the  great 
and  memorable  one  of  that  epoch  of  transition,  at 
which  the  static  current  of  previous  civilization  changed 
suddenly  to  a  Niagara-current  of  progress,  it  will  be  the 

VOL.    VII. 2  F  17  1 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

name  of  the  great  scientific  inventor,  rather  than  that 
of  the  great  military  conqueror — the  name  of  James 
Watt,  rather  than  that  of  Napoleon. 

The  military  conqueror  had  his  day  of  surpassing 
glory  and  departed,  to  leave  the  world  only  a  little 
worse  than  he  found  it.  But  the  mechanical  inventor 
left  a  heritage  that  was  to  add  day  by  day  to  the  wealth 
and  happiness  of  humanity,  supplying  millions  of 
artificial  hands,  and  making  possible  such  beneficent 
improvements  as  no  previous  age  had  dreamed  of. 
Tasks  that  human  hands  had  performed  slowly,  labor- 
iously, and  inadequately,  were  now  to  be  performed 
swiftly,  with  ease,  and  well  by  the  artificial  hands 
provided  with  the  aid  of  the  new  power.  Where  carts 
drawn  by  horses  had  toiled  slowly  across  the  land,  and 
ships  driven  by  the  wind  had  drifted  slowly  through 
the  waters,  massive  trains  of  cars  were  to  hurtle  to  the 
four  corners  of  the  earth  with  inconceivable  speed, 
and  floating  palaces  were  to  course  the  waters  with 
almost  equal  defiance  to  the  limitations  of  time  and 
space. 

And  then  there  came  that  still  weirder  conquest  of 
time  and  space,  wrought  by  the  electric  current.  The 
moment  when  man  first  spoke  with  man  from  continent 
to  continent  in  defiance  of  the  oceans,  marked  the 
dawning  of  that  larger  day  when  all  mankind  shall  con- 
stitute one  brotherhood  and  all  peoples  but  a  single 
nation.  Within  a  half  century  the  sun  of  that  new 
day  has  risen  well  above  the  horizon,  and  far  sooner 
than  even  the  optimist  of  to-day  dare  predict  with 
certainty,  it  seems  destined  to  reach  its  zenith. 

[18] 


MAN   AND   NATURE 

But  here  again  we  verge  upon  the  dangerous  field  of 
prophecy.  Let  us  turn  from  it  and  cast  an  eye  back 
across  the  most  wonderful  of  centuries,  contrasting 
the  conditions  of  to-day  in  each  of  a  half-dozen  fields  of 
the  world's  work,  with  the  conditions  that  obtained 
at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Such  a  brief 
survey  will  show  us  perhaps  more  vividly  than  we 
could  otherwise  be  shown,  how  vast  has  been  the 
progress,  how  marvelous  the  development  of  civili- 
zation, in  the  short  decades  that  have  elapsed  since 
the  coming  of  the  Age  of  Steam. 

Let  us  pay  heed  first  to  the  world  of  the  agriculturist. 
Could  we  turn  back  to  the  days  of  our  grandparents, 
we  should  find  farming  a  very  different  employment 
from  what  it  is  to-day.  For  the  most  part  the  farmer 
operated  but  a  few  small  fields;  if  he  had  thirty  or  forty 
acres  of  ploughed  land,  he  found  ample  employment 
for  his  capacities.  He  ploughed  his  fields  with  the 
aid  of  either  a  yoke  of  oxen  or  a  team  of  horses;  he 
sowed  his  grain  by  hand;  he  cultivated  his  corn  with 
a  hoe;  he  reaped  his  oats  and  wheat  with  a  cradle— 
a  device  but  one  step  removed  from  a  sickle ;  he  threshed 
his  grain  4with  a  flail ;  he  ground  such  portion  of  it  as 
he  needed  for  his  own  use  with  the  aid  of  water  power 
at  a  neighboring  mill ;  and  such  portion  of  it  as  he  sold 
was  transported  to  market,  be  it  far  or  near,  in  wagons 
that*  compassed  twenty  or  thirty  miles  a  day  at  best. 
As  regards  live  stock,  each  farmer  raised  a  few  cattle, 
sheep,  and  hogs,  and  butchered  them  to  supply  his 
own  needs,  selling  the  residue  to  a  local  dealer  who 
supplied  the  non-agricultural  portion  of  the  neigh- 

[19] 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

borhood.  Any  live  stock  intended  for  a  distant  market 
was  driven  on  foot  across  the  country  to  its  destination. 
Each  town  and  city,  therefore,  drew  almost  exclusively 
for  its  supply  from  the  immediately  surrounding 
country. 

To-day  the  small  farmer  has  become  almost  obsolete, 
and  the  farms  of  the  eastern  states  that  were  the  na- 
tion's chief  source  of  supply  a  century  ago  are  largely 
allowed  to  lie  fallow,  it  being  no  longer  possible  to 
cultivate  them  profitably  in  competition  with  the  rich 
farm  lands  of  the  middle  west.  In  that  new  home  of 
agriculture,  the  farm  that  does  not  comprise  two  or 
three  hundred  acres  is  considered  small;  and  large 
farms  are  those  that  number  their  acres  by  thousands. 
The  soil  is  turned  by  steam  ploughs;  the  grain  is 
sown  with  mechanical  seeders  and  planters;  the  corn 
is  cultivated  with  a  horse-drawn  machine,  having  blades 
that  do  the  work  of  a  dozen  men;  harvesters  drawn 
by  three  or  four  horses  sweep  over  the  fields  and  leave 
the  grain  mechanically  tied  in  bundles;  the  steam 
thresher  places  the  grain  in  sacks  by  hundreds  of 
bushels  a  day;  and  this  grain  is  hurried  off  in  steam 
cars  to  distant  mills  and  yet  more  distant  markets. 

Meantime  the  raising  of  live  stock  has  become  a 
special  department,  with  which  the  farmer  who  deals 
in  cereals  often  has  no  concern.  The  cattle  roam  over 
vast  pastures  and  are  herded  in  the  winter  for  fattening 
in  great  droves,  and  protected  from  the  cold  in  barns 
that,  when  contrasted  with  the  sheds  of  the  old-time 
farmer,  seem  almost  palatial.  When  in  marketable 
condition,  cattle  are  no  longer  slaughtered  at  the  farm, 

[20] 


MAN  AND  NATURE 

but  are  transported  in  cars  to  one  of  the  few  great 
centres,  chief  of  which  are  the  stock  yards  of  Chicago 
and  of  Kansas  City.  At  these  centres,  slaughter  houses 
and  meat-packing  houses  of  stupendous  magnitude  have 
been  developed,  capable  of  handling  millions  of  animals 
in  a  year.  From  these  centres  the  meat  is  transported 
in  refrigerator  cars  to  the  seaboards,  and  in  refrigerator 
ships  to  all  parts  of  the  world.  Beef  that  grew  on  the 
ranges  of  the  far  west  may  thus  be  offered  for  sale  in 
the  markets  of  New  England  villages,  at  a  price  that 
prohibits  local  competition. 

A  more  radical  metamorphosis  in  agricultural  con- 
ditions than  all  this  implies  could  not  well  be  conceived. 
And  when  we  recall  once  more  that  the  agricultural  con- 
ditions that  obtained  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century  were  closely  similar  to  those  that  obtained 
in  each  successive  age  for  a  hundred  preceding  cen- 
turies, we  shall  gain  a  vivid  idea  of  the  revolutionizing 
effects  of  new  methods  of  work  in  the  most  important 
of  industries.  It  is  little  wonder  that  in  this  short 
time  the  world  has  not  solved  to  the  satisfaction  of 
the  economists  all  the  new  problems  thus  so  suddenly 
developed. 

Turn  now  to  the  manufacturing  world.  In  the  days 
of  our  great-grandparents  almost  every  household  was 
a  miniature  factory  where  cotton  and  wool  were  spun 
and  the  products  were  woven  into  cloth.  It  was  not 
till  toward  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century — just 
at  the  time  when  Watt  was  perfecting  the  steam  engine 
—that  Arkwright  developed  the  spinning-frame,  and 
his  successors  elaborated  the  machinery  that  made 

[21] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

possible  the  manufacture  of  cloth  in  wholesale  quan- 
tities; and  the  nineteenth  century  was  well  under  way 
before  the  household  production  of  cloth  had  been 
entirely  supplanted  by  factory  production.  It  is  noth- 
ing less  than  pitiful  to  contemplate  in  imagination 
our  great-great-grandmothers — and  all  their  forebears 
of  the  long  centuries — drudging  away  day  after  day, 
year  in  and  year  out,  at  the  ceaseless  task  of  spinning 
and  weaving — only  to  produce,  as  the  output  of  a  life- 
time of  labor,  a  quantity  of  cloth  equivalent  perhaps 
to  what  our  perfected  machine,  driven  by  steam,  and 
manipulated  by  a  factory  girl,  produces  each  working 
hour  of  every  day.  Similarly,  carpets  and  quilts  were 
of  home  manufacture;  so  were  coats  and  dresses;  and 
shoes  were  at  most  the  product  of  the  local  shoemaker 
around  the  corner. 

In  the  kitchen,  food  was  cooked  over  the  coals  of 
a  great  fireplace  or  in  the  brick  oven  connected  with 
that  fireplace.  Meat  was  supplied  from  a  neigh- 
boring farm;  eggs  were  the  product  of  the  house- 
wife's own  poultry  yard;  the  son  or  daughter  of  the 
farmer  milked  the  cow  and  drove  her  to  and  from  the 
pasture;  the  milk  was  "set"  in  pans  in  the  cellar — on 
a  swinging  shelf,  preferably,  to  make  it  inaccessible  to 
the  rats;  and  twice  a  week  the  cream  was  made  into 
butter  in  a  primitive  churn,  the  dasher  of  which  was 
operated  by  the  vigorous  arm  of  the  housewife  herself, 
or  by  the  unwilling  arms  of  some  one  of  her  numerous 
progeny. 

To  give  variety  to  the  dietary,  fruits  grown  in  the 
local  garden  or  orchard  were  preserved,  each  in  its 

[22] 


MAN  AND  NATURE 

season,  by  the  industrious  housewife,  and  stored  away 
in  the  capacious  cellar;  where  also  might  be  found 
the  supply  of  home-grown  potatoes,  turnips,  carrots, 
parsnips,  and  cabbages  to  provide  for  the  needs  of  the 
winter.  Fuel  to  supply  the  household  needs,  both  for 
cooking  and  heating,  was  cut  in  the  neighboring  wood- 
land, and  carefully  corded  in  the  door-yard,  where  it 
provided  most  uncongenial  employment  for  the  youth 
of  the  family  after  school  hours  and  of  a  Saturday 
afternoon. 

The  ashes  produced  when  this  wood  was  burned 
in  the  various  fireplaces,  were  not  wasted,  but  were 
carefully  deposited  in  barrels,  from  which  in  due  course 
lye  was  extracted  by  the  simple  process  of  pouring 
water  over  the  contents  of  the  barrel.  Meantime 
scraps  of  fat  from  the  table  were  collected  throughout 
the  winter  and  preserved  with  equal  care;  and  in  due 
course  on  some  leisure  day  in  the  springtime — heaven 
knows  how  a  leisure  day  was  ever  found  in  such  a  scheme 
of  domestic  economy! — the  lye  drawn  from  the  ash- 
barrels  and  the  scraps  of  fat  were  put  into  a  gigantic 
kettle,  underneath  which  a  fire  was  kindled;  with  the 
result  that  ultimately  a  supply  of  soft  soap  was  provided 
the  housewife,  with  which  her  entire  establishment, 
progeny  included,  could  be  kept  in  a  state  of  relative 
cleanness. 

The  reader  of  these  pages  has  but  to  cast  his  eye 
about  him  in  the  household  in  which  he  lives,  and 
contrast  the  conditions  just  depicted  with  those  of  his 
every-day  life,  to  realize  what  change  has  come  over 
the  aspects  of  household  economy  in  the  course  of  a 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

short  century.  Nor  need  he  be  told  in  each  of  the 
various  departments  of  which  the  activities  are  here 
outlined,  that  the  changes  which  he  observes  have  been 
due  to  the  application  of  machinery  in  all  the  essential 
lines  of  work  in  question.  We  need  not  pause  to  detail 
the  multitudinous  devices  for  the  economy  of  household 
labor  which  owe  their  origin  to  the  same  agency.  There 
still  remains,  to  be  sure,  enough  of  drudgery  in  the  task 
of  the  housewife;  yet  her  most  strenuous  day  seems  a 
mere  playtime  in  comparison  with  the  average  day  of 
her  maternal  forebear  of  three  or  four  generations  ago. 

But  we  must  not  here  pause  for  further  outlines  of 
a  subject  which  it  is  the  purpose  of  this  and  succeeding 
volumes  to  explicate  in  detail.  All  our  succeeding 
chapters  will  but  make  it  more  clear  how  marvelous 
are  the  elaborations  of  method  and  of  mechanism 
through  which  the  world's  work  of  to-day  is  accom- 
plished. We  shall  consider  first  the  mechanical  prin- 
ciples that  underlie  work  in  general,  passing  on  to  some 
of  the  principal  methods  of  application  through  which 
the  powers  of  Nature  are  made  available.  We  shall 
then  take  up  in  succession  the  different  fields  of  industry. 
We  shall  ask  how  the  work  of  the  agriculturist  is  done 
in  the  modern  world;  how  the  multitudinous  lines 
of  manufacture  are  carried  out;  how  transportation 
is  effected;  we  shall  examine  the  modus  operandi  of 
the  transmission  of  ideas;  we  shall  even  consider  that 
destructive  form  of  labor  which  manifests  itself  in  the 
production  of  mechanisms  of  warfare.  As  we  follow 
out  the  stories  of  the  all-essential  industries  we  shall 
be  led  to  realize  more  fully  perhaps  than  we  have  done 

[24] 


MAN   AND   NATURE 

before,  the  meaning  of  work  in  its  relations  to  human 
development ;  and  in  particular  the  meaning  of  modern 
work,  as  carried  out  with  the  aid  of  modern  mechanical 
contrivances,  in  its  relations  to  modern  civilization. 

The  full  force  of  these  relations  may  best  be  permitted 
to  unfold  itself  as  the  story  proceeds.  There  is,  how- 
ever, one  fundamental  principle  which  I  would  ask 
the  reader  to  bear  constantly  in  mind,  as  an  aid  to  the 
full  appreciation  of  the  importance  of  our  subject.  It  is 
that  in  considering  the  output  of  the  worker  we  have 
constantly  to  do  with  one  form  or  another  of  property, 
and  that  property  is  the  very  foundation-stone  of  civili- 
zation. "It  is  impossible,"  says  Morgan,  in  his  work 
on  Ancient  Society,  "to  overestimate  the  influence  of 
property  in  the  civilization  of  mankind.  It  was  the 
power  that  brought  the  Aryan  and  Semitic  nations  out 
of  barbarism  into  civilization.  The  growth  of  the  idea 
of  property  in  the  human  mind  commenced  in  feeble- 
ness and  ended  in  becoming  its  master  passion.  Gov- 
ernments and  laws  are  instituted  with  primary  reference 
to  its  creation,  protection,  and  enjoyment.  It  intro- 
duced human  slavery  in  its  production;  and,  after 
the  experience  of  several  thousand  years,  it  caused  the 
abolition  of  slavery  upon  the  discovery  that  the  freeman 
was  a  better  property-making  machine."  If,  then,  we 
recall  that  without  labor  there  is  no  property,  we  shall 
be  in  an  attitude  of  mind  to  appreciate  the  importance 
of  our  subject;  we  shall  realize,  somewhat  beyond  the 
bounds  of  its  more  tangible  and  sordid  relations,  the 
essential  dignity,  the  fundamental  importance — in  a 
word,  the  true  meaning — of  Work. 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

Undoubtedly  there  is  a  modern  tendency  to  accept 
this  view  of  the  dignity  of  physical  labor.  At  any  rate, 
we  differ  from  the  savage  in  thinking  it  more  fitting 
that  man  should  toil  than  that  his  wife  should  labor 
to  support  him — though  it  cannot  be  denied  that  even 
now  the  number  of  physical  toilers  among  women 
greatly  exceeds  the  number  of  such  toilers  among  men. 
But  in  whatever  measure  we  admit  this  attitude  of  mind, 
there  can  be  no  question  that  it  is  exclusively  a  modern 
attitude.  Time  out  of  mind,  physical  labor  has  been 
distasteful  to  mankind,  and  it  is  a  later  development 
of  philosophy  that  appreciates  the  beneficence  of  the 
task  so  little  relished. 

The  barbarian  forces  his  wife  to  do  most  of  the  work, 
and  glories  in  his  own  freedom.  Early  civilization 
kept  conquered  foes  in  thraldom,  developing  an  heredi- 
tary body  of  slaves,  whose  function  it  was  to  do  the 
physical  work. 

The  Hebrew  explained  the  necessity  for  labor  as  a 
curse  imposed  upon  Father  Adam  and  Mother  Eve. 
Plato  and  Aristotle,  voicing  the  spirit  of  the  Greeks, 
considered  manual  toil  as  degrading. 

To-day  we  hear  much  of  the  dignity  of  labor;  but 
if  we  would  avoid  cant  we  must  admit  that  now — 
scarcely  less  than  in  all  the  olden  days — the  physical 
toiler  is  such  because  he  cannot  help  himself.  Few 
indeed  are  the  manual  laborers  who  know  any  other 
means  of  getting  their  daily  bread  than  that  which  they 
employ.  The  most  strenuous  advocates  of  the  strenu- 
ous life  are  not  themselves  tillers  of  the  soil  or  workers 
in  factories  or  machine  shops. 

[96] 


MAN   AND   NATURE 

The  farm  youth  of  intelligence  does  not  remain  a 
farmer;  he  goes  to  the  city,  and  we  find  him  presently 
at  the  head  of  a  railroad  or  a  bank,  or  practising  law 
or  medicine.  The  more  intelligent  laborer  becomes 
finally  a  foreman,  and  no  longer  handles  the  axe  or 
sledge.  We  should  think  it  grotesque  were  we  to  see 
a  man  of  intellectual  power  obstinately  following  a 
pursuit  that  cost  him  habitual  physical  toil.  When 
now  and  then  a  Tolstoi  offers  an  exception  to  this 
rule,  we  feel  that  he  is  at  least  eccentric;  and  we  may 
be  excused  the  doubt  whether  he  would  follow  the 
manual  task  cheerfully  if  he  did  not  know  that  he  could 
at  any  moment  abandon  it.  It  is  because  he  knows 
that  the  world  understands  him  to  be  only  a  dilettante 
that  he  rejoices  in  his  task. 

After  all,  then,  judged  by  the  modern  practice, 
rather  than  by  the  philosopher's  precept,  the  old  Hebrew 
and  Greek  ideas  were  not  so  far  wrong.  Using  the 
poetical  language  which  was  so  native  to  them,  it  might 
be  said  that  the  necessity  for  physical  labor  is  a  curse 
—a  disgrace. 

A  partial  explanation  of  this  may  be  found  in  the 
fact  that  the  most  uncongenial  tasks  are  also  the  worst 
paid,  while  the  congenial  tasks  command  the  high 
emoluments.  Generally  speaking  there  is  no  distinc- 
tion between  one  laborer  and  another  in  the  same 
field — except  where  the  eminently  fair  method  of  piece 
work  can  be  employed.  Even  the  skilled  laborer  is 
usually  paid  by  the  day,  and  the  amount  he  is  to  re- 
ceive is  commonly  fixed  by  a  Union  regardless  of  his 
efficiency  as  compared  with  other  laborers  of  the  same 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

class.  And  there  is  no  possibility  of  his  receiving  any 
such  sums  as  the  man  who  plans  the  work,  but  does 
nothing  with  his  own  hands. 

It  has  always  been  so.  Just  as  "  those  who  think 
must  govern  those  that  toil,"  so  the  thinker  must  com- 
mand the  high  reward.  Partly  this  is  because  man, 
considered  as  a  mere  toiler,  is  so  relatively  inefficient  a 
worker.  When  he  strives  to  work  with  his  hands,  his 
effort  is  but  a  pitiful  one;  he  can  by  no  possibility 
compete  (as  regards  mere  quantity  of  labor)  with  the 
ox  and  the  horse.  He  is  impatient  of  his  own  puerile 
efforts.  It  is  only  when  he  brings  the  products  of 
ingenuity  to  his  aid  that  he  is  able  to  show  his  superior- 
ity, and  to  justify  his  own  egotism.  So  it  is  that  in 
every  age  he  has  striven  to  find  means  of  adding  to 
his  feeble  powers  of  body  through  the  use  of  his  rela- 
tively gigantic  powers  of  mind.  And  in  proportion  as 
he  thus  is  able  to  "make  his  head  work  for  his  hands" 
as  the  saying  goes,  he  verges  toward  the  heights  of  civil- 
ization. To  accomplish  this  more  and  more  fully  has 
ever  been  the  task  of  science  as  applied  to  the  industries. 

It  will  be  our  object  in  the  ensuing  chapters  to  inquire 
how  far  science  has  accomplished  the  protean  task 
thus  set  for  it.  We  shall  see  that  much  has  been  done; 
but  that  much  still  remains  to  be  done.  In  proportion 
as  the  problems  are  unsolved,  science  is  reproached 
for  its  shortcomings — and  stimulated  to  new  efforts. 

In  proportion  as  labor  has  been  minimized  and  pro- 
duction increased — in  just  that  proportion  has  science 
justified  itself;  and  in  the  same  proportion  has  the 
Conquest  of  Nature  been  carried  toward  completion. 


II 


HOW  WORK  IS  DONE 

THE  word  energy  implies  capacity  to  do  work. 
Work,  considered  in  the  abstract,  consists  in 
the  moving  of  particles  of  matter  against  some 
opposing  force,  or  in  aid  of  previously  acting  forces.  In 
the  last  analysis,  all  energy  manifests  itself  either  as  a 
push  or  as  a  pull.  But  there  is  a  modification  of  push 
and  pull  which  is  familiar  to  everyone  in  practice  under 
the  name  of  prying.  Illustrations  may  be  seen  on  every 
hand,  as  when  a  workman  pries  up  a  stone,  or  when  a 
housewife  pries  up  a  tack  with  the  aid  of  a  hammer. 
The  principle  here  involved  is  that  of  the  lever — a  princi- 
ple which  in  its  various  practical  modifications  is  every- 
where utilized  in  mechanics.  Very  seldom  indeed  is 
the  direct  push  or  pull  utilized;  since  the  modified 
push  or  pull,  as  represented  by  the  lever  in  its  various 
modifications  of  pulley,  ratchet-wheel,  and  the  like, 
has  long  been  known  to  meet  the  needs  of  practical 
mechanics. 

The  very  earliest  primitive  man  who  came  to  use  any 
implement  whatever,  though  it  were  only  a  broken 
stick,  must  have  discovered  the  essential  principle 
of  the  lever,  though  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  add  that  he 
did  not  know  his  discovery  by  any  such  high-sounding 

[29] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

title.  What  he  did  know,  from  practical  experience, 
was  that  with  the  aid  of  a  stick  he  could  pry  up  stones 
or  logs  that  were  much  too  heavy  to  be  lifted  without 
this  aid. 

This  practical  knowledge  no  doubt  sufficed  for  a 
vast  number  of  generations  of  men  who  used  the  lever 
habitually,  without  making  specific  study  of  the  rela- 
tions between  the  force  expended,  the  lengths  of  the 
two  ends  of  the  lever,  and  the  weight  raised.  Such 
specific  experiments  were  made,  however,  more  than 
two  thousand  years  ago  by  the  famous  Syracusan,  Archi- 
medes. He  discovered — or  if  some  one  else  had  dis- 
covered it  before  him,  he  at  least  recorded  and  so  gains 
the  credit  of  discovery — the  specific  laws  of  the  lever, 
and  he  also  pointed  out  that  levers,  all  acting  on  the 
same  principle,  may  be  different  as  to  their  practical 
mechanism  in  three  ways. 

First,  the  fulcrum  may  lie  between  the  power  and  the 
weight,  as  in  the  case  of  the  balance  with  which  we 
were  just  experimenting.  This  is  called  a  lever  of 
the  first  class,  and  familiar  illustrations  of  it  are  fur- 
nished by  the  poker,  steelyard,  or  a  pair  of  scissors. 
The  so-called  extensor  muscles  of  the  body — those 
for  example,  that  cause  the  arm  to  extend — act  on  the 
bones  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  them  levers  of  this 
first  class. 

The  second  type  of  lever  is  that  hi  which  the 
weight  lies  between  the  force  and  the  fulcrum,  as 
illustrated  by  the  wheelbarrow,  or  by  an  ordinary  door. 

In  the  third  class  of  levers  the  power  is  applied  be- 
tween weight  and  fulcrum,  as  illustrated  by  a  pair  of 

[30] 


HOW   WORK    IS   DONE 

tongs,  the  treadle  of  a  lathe,  or  by  the  flexor  muscles  of 
the  arm,  operating  upon  the  bones  of  the  forearm. 

But  in  each  case,  let  it  be  repeated,  precisely  the  same 
principles  are  involved,  and  the  same  simple  law  of  the 
relations  between  positions  of  power,  weight,  and  ful- 
crum are  maintained.  The  practical  result  is  always 
that  a  weight  of  indefinite  size  may  be  moved  by  a  power 
indefinitely  long.  If  one  arm  of  the  lever  is  ten  times 
as  long  as  the  other,  the  power  of  one  pound  will  lift 
or  balance  a  ten-pound  weight;  if  the  one  arm  is  a 
thousand  times  as  long  as  the  other  the  power  of  one 
pound  will  lift  or  balance  a  thousand  pounds.  If 
the  long  arm  of  the  lever  could  be  made  some  mil- 
lions of  miles  in  length,  the  power  that  a  man  could 
exert  would  balance  the  earth. 

How  fully  Archimedes  realized  the  possibilities  of 
the  lever  is  illustrated  in  the  classical  remark  attributed 
to  him,  that,  had  he  but  a  fulcrum  on  which  to  place 
his  lever,  he  could  move  the  world.  As  otherwise 
quoted,  the  remark  of  Archimedes  was  that,  had  he 
a  place  on  which  to  stand,  he  could  move  the  world, 
a  remark  which  even  more  than  the  other  illustrates 
the  full  and  acute  appreciation  of  the  laws  of  motion; 
since,  as  we  have  already  pointed  out,  action  and  re- 
action being  equal,  the  most  infinitesimal  push  must  be 
considered  as  disturbing  even  the  largest  body. 

Tremendous  as  is  the  pull  of  gravity  by  which  the 
earth  is  held  in  its  orbit,  yet  the  smallest  push,  steadily 
applied  from  the  direction  of  the  sun,  would  suffice 
ultimately  to  disturb  the  stability  of  our  earth's  motion, 
and  to  push  it  gradually  through  a  spiral  course  farther 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

and  farther  away  from  its  present  line  of  elliptical  flight 
Or  if,  on  the  other  hand,  the  persistent  force  were  ap- 
plied from  the  side  opposite  the  sun,  it  would  suffice 
ultimately  to  carry  the  earth  in  a  spiral  course  until  it 
plunged  into  the  sun  itself.  Indeed  it  has  been  ques- 
tioned in  modern  times  whether  it  may  not  be  possible 
that  precisely  this  latter  effect  is  gradually  being 
accomplished,  through  the  action  of  meteorites,  some 
millions  of  which  fall  out  of  space  into  the  earth's 
atmosphere  every  day.  If  these  meteorites  were 
uniformly  distributed  through  space  and  flying  in 
every  direction,  the  fact  that  the  sun  screens  the  earth 
from  a  certain  number  of  them,  would  make  the  aver- 
age number  falling  on  the  side  away  from  the  sun 
greater,  and  thus  would  in  the  course  of  ages  produce 
the  result  just  suggested.  All  that  could  save  our  earth 
from  such  a  fate  would  be  the  operation  of  some  coun- 
teracting force.  Such  a  counteracting  force  is  perhaps 
found  in  solar  radiation.  It  may  be  added  that  the 
distribution  of  meteorites  in  space  is  probably  too 
irregular  to  make  their  influence  on  the  earth  predicable 
in  the  present  state  of  science ;  but  the  principle  involved 
is  no  less  sure. 

WHEELS  AND  PULLEYS 

Returning  from  such  theoretical  applications  of  the 
principle  of  motion,  to  the  practicalities  of  every-day 
mechanisms,  we  must  note  some  of  the  applications 
through  which  the  principle  of  the  lever  is  made  avail- 
able. Of  these  some  of  the  most  familiar  are  wheels,  and 
the  various  modifications  of  wheels  utilized  in  pulleys 

[32] 


o 

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2    II 

<      -^    '- 


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u  iJ 

•O   rt 
C   3 


M    C 

S-3 
^  = 
If 


s 


HOW  WORK  IS   DONE 

and  in  cogged  and  bevelled  gearings.  A  moment's 
reflection  will  make  it  clear  that  the  wheel  is  a  lever 
of  the  first  class,  of  which  the  axle  constitutes  the  ful- 
crum. The  spokes  of  the  wheel  being  of  equal  length, 
weights  and  forces  applied  to  opposite  ends  of  any  diame- 
ter are,  of  course,  in  equilibrium.  It  follows  that  when 
a  wheel  is  adjusted  so  that  a  rope  may  be  run  about  it, 
constituting  a  simple  pulley,  a  mechanism  is  developed 
which  gives  no  gain  in  power,  but  only  enables  the 
operator  to  change  the  direction  of  application  of 
power.  In  other  words,  pound  weights  at  either  end 
of  a  rope  passed  about  a  simple  pulley  are  in  equilibrium 
and  will  balance  each  other,  and  move  through  equal 
distances  in  opposite  directions. 

If,  however,  two  or  more  pulley  wheels  are  connected, 
to  make  the  familiar  apparatus  of  a  compound  pulley, 
we  have  accomplished  by  an  interesting  mechanism  a 
virtual  application  of  the  principle  of  the  long  and 
short  arm  of  the  lever,  and  the  relations  between  the 
weight  at  the  loose  end  of  the  rope  and  the  weight  at- 
tached to  the  block  which  constitutes  virtually  the  short 
end  of  the  lever,  may  be  varied  indefinitely,  according 
to  the  number  of  pulley-wheels  that  are  used.  A 
pound  weight  may  be  made  to  balance  a  thousand- 
pound  weight;  but,  of  course,  our  familiar  principle 
still  holding,  the  pound  weight  must  move  through 
a  distance  of  a  thousand  feet  in  order  to  move  a  thousand- 
pound  weight  through  a  distance  of  one  foot.  Familiar 
illustrations  of  the  application  of  this  principle  may  be 
seen  on  every  hand;  as  when,  for  example,  a  piano  or  a 
safe  is  raised  to  the  upper  window  of  a  building  by  the 

voL.vn.-s  [33] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

efforts  of  men  whose  power,  if  directly  expended,  would 
be  altogether  inefficient  to  stir  the  weight. 

The  pulley  was  doubtless  invented  at  a  much  later 
stage  of  human  progress  than  the  simple  lever.  It 
was,  however,  well  known  to  the  ancients.  It  was 
probably  brought  to  its  highest  state  of  practical  per- 
fection by  Archimedes,  whose  experiments  are  famous 
through  the  narrative  of  Plutarch.  It  will  be  recalled 
that  Archimedes  amazed  the  Syracusan  general  by  con- 
structing an  apparatus  that  enabled  him,  sitting  on 
shore,  to  drag  a  ponderous  galley  from  the  water. 
Plutarch  does  not  describe  in  detail  the  apparatus  with 
which  this  was  accomplished,  but  it  is  obvious  from  his 
description  of  what  took  place,  that  it  must  have  been 
a  system  of  pulleys. 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  pulley  is  a  mechanism 
that  enables  the  user  to  transmit  power  to  a  distance. 
But  this  indeed  is  true  in  a  certain  sense  of  every  form 
of  lever.  Numberless  other  contrivances  are  in  use 
by  which  power  is  transmitted,  through  utilization  of 
the  same  principle  of  the  lever,  either  through  a  short 
or  through  a  relatively  long  distance.  A  familiar  illus- 
tration is  the  windlass,  which  consists  of  a  cylinder 
rotating  on  an  axis  propelled  by  a  long  handle,  a  rope 
being  wound  about  the  cylinder.  This  is  a  lever  of 
the  second  class,  the  axis  acting  as  fulcrum,  and  the 
rope  operating  about  the  circumference  of  the  cylinder 
typifying  the  weight,  which  may  be  actually  at  a  con- 
siderable distance,  as  in  the  case  of  the  old-fashioned 
well  with  its  windlass  and  bucket,  or  of  the  simple  form 
of  derrick  sometimes  called  a  sheerlegs. 

[34] 


HOW   WORK   IS   DONE 

OTHER  MEANS  OF  TRANSMITTING  POWER 

Power  is  transmitted  directly  from  one  part  of  a 
machine  to  another,  in  the  case  of  a  great  variety  of 
machines,  with  the  aid  of  cogged  gearing  wheels  of 
various  sizes.  The  modifications  of  detail  in  the  appli- 
cation of  these  wheels  may  be  almost  infinite,  but  the 
principle  involved  is  always  the  same.  The  case  of  two 
wheels  toothed  about  the  circumference,  the  teeth  of 
the  two  wheels  fitting  into  one  another,  illustrates  the 
principle  involved.  A  consideration  of  the  mechanism 
will  show  that  here  we  have  virtually  a  lever  fixed  at 
both  ends,  represented  by  the  radii  of  the  two  wheels, 
the  power  being  applied  through  the  axle  of  one  wheel, 
and  the  weight,  for  purposes  of  calculation,  being  rep- 
resented by  the  pressure  of  the  teeth  of  one  wheel  upon 
those  of  the  other.  So  this  becomes  a  lever  of  the 
second  class,  and  the  relations  of  power  between  the 
two  wheels  are  easily  calculated  from  the  relative 
lengths  of  the  radii.  If,  for  example,  one  radius  is 
twice  as  long  as  the  other,  the  transmission  of  power 
will  be,  obviously,  in  the  proportion  of  two  to  one,  and 
meantime  the  distance  traversed  by  the  circumference 
of  one  wheel  will  be  twice  as  great  as  that  traversed  by 
the  other. 

A  modification  of  the  toothed  wheel  is  furnished  by 
wheels  which  may  be  separated  by  a  considerable  dis- 
tance, and  the  circumferences  of  which  are  connected 
by  a  belt  or  by  a  chain.  The  principle  of  action  here 
is  precisely  the  same,  the  belt  or  chain  serving  merely 
as  a  means  of  lengthening  out  our  lever.  The  relative 

[35] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

sizes  of  the  wheels,  and  not  the  length  of  the  belt  or 
chain,  is  the  determining  factor  as  regards  the  relative 
forces  required  to  make  the  wheels  revolve. 

It  is  obvious  all  along,  of  course,  since  action  and 
reaction  are  equal,  that  all  of  the  relations  in  question 
are  reciprocal.  When,  for  example,  we  speak  of  a 
pound  weight  on  the  long  end  of  a  lever  balancing  a  ten- 
pound  weight  on  the  short  end,  it  is  equally  appropriate 
to  speak  of  the  ten-pound  weight  as  balancing  the  one- 
pound  weight.  Similarly,  when  power  is  applied  to 
the  lever,  it  may  be  applied  at  either  end.  Ordinarily, 
to  be  sure,  the  power  is  applied  at  the  long  end,  since 
the  object  is  to  lift  the  heavy  weight;  but  in  complicated 
machinery  it  quite  as  often  happens  that  these  condi- 
tions are  reversed,  and  then  it  becomes  desirable  to 
apply  strong  power  to  the  short  end  of  the  lever,  in 
order  that  the  relatively  small  weight  may  be  carried 
through  the  long  distance.  In  the  inter-relations  of 
gearing  wheels,  such  conditions  very  frequently  obtain, 
practical  ends  being  met  by  a  series  of  wheels  of  differ- 
ent sizes.  But  the  single  rule,  already  so  often  out- 
lined, everywhere  holds — wherever  there  is  gain  of 
power  there  is  loss  of  distance,  and  we  can  gain  distance 
only  by  losing  power.  The  words  gain  and  loss  in  this 
application  are  in  a  sense  misnomers,  since,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  gain  and  loss  are  only  apparent,  but 
their  convenience  of  application  is  obvious. 

A  familiar  case  in  which  there  is  first  loss  of  speed 
and  gain  of  power,  and  then  gain  of  speed  at  the  ex- 
pense of  power  in  the  same  mechanism,  is  furnished 
by  the  bicycle,  where  (i)  the  crank  shaft  turns  the 

E36] 


HOW   WORK   IS   DONE 

sprocket  wheel  that  constitutes  a  lever  of  the  second 
class  with  gain  of  power;  where  (2)  power  is  further 
augmented  through  transmission  from  the  relatively 
large  sprocket  wheel  to  the  small  sprocket  of  the  axle; 
and  where  (3)  there  is  great  loss  of  power  and  corre- 
sponding gain  of  speed  in  transmitting  the  force  from 
the  small  sprocket  wheel  at  the  axle  to  the  rubber  rim 
of  the  bicycle  proper,  this  last  transmission  representing 
a  lever  of  the  third  class.  The  net  gain  of  speed  is 
tangibly  represented  by  the  difference  in  distance 
traversed  by  the  man's  feet  in  revolving  the  pedals, 
and  the  actual  distance  covered  by  the  bicycle. 

INCLINED  PLANES  AND  DERRICKS 

A  less  obvious  application  of  the  principle  of  recip- 
rocal equivalence  of  distance  and  weight  is  furnished 
by  the  inclined  plane,  a  familiar  mechanism  with  the 
aid  of  which  a  great  gain  of  power  is  possible.  The  in- 
clined plane,  like  the  lever,  has  been  known  from  re- 
motest antiquity.  Its  utility  was  probably  discovered 
by  almost  the  earliest  builders.  Diodorus  Siculus 
tells  us  that  the  great  pyramids  of  Egypt  were  con- 
structed with  the  aid  of  inclined  planes,  based  on  a 
foundation  of  earth  piled  about  the  pyramids.  Dio- 
dorus, living  at  a  period  removed  by  some  thousands  of 
years  from  the  day  of  the  building  of  the  pyramids,  may 
or  may  not  have  voiced  and  recorded  an  authentic 
tradition,  but  we  may  well  believe  that  the  principle 
of  the  inclined  plane  was  largely  drawn  upon  by  the 
mechanics  of  old  Egypt,  as  by  later  peoples. 

[37] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

The  law  of  the  inclined  plane  is  that  in  order  to 
establish  equilibrium  between  two  weights,  the  one 
must  be  to  the  other  as  the  height  of  the  inclined  plane 
is  to  its  length.  The  steeper  the  inclined  plane,  there- 
fore, the  less  will  be  the  gain  in  power;  a  mechanical 
principle  which  familiar  experience  or  the  simplest 
experiment  will  readily  corroborate. 

In  its  elemental  form  the  inclined  plane  is  not  used 
very  largely  in  modern  machinery,  but  its  modified 
form  of  the  wedge  and  the  screw  have  more  utility. 
The  screw,  indeed,  which  is  obviously  an  inclined 
plane  adjusted  spirally  about  a  cylinder  or  a  cone,  is 
familiar  to  everyone,  and  is  constantly  utilized  in  ap- 
plying power. 

The  crane  or  derrick  furnishes  a  familiar  but  relatively 
elaborate  illustration  of  a  mechanism  for  the  trans- 
mission of  power,  in  which  all  the  various  devices 
hitherto  referred  to  are  combined,  without  the  intro- 
duction of  any  new  principle. 

Derricks  have  been  employed  from  a  very  early  day. 
The  battering-rams  of  the  ancient  Egyptians  and 
Babylonians,  for  example,  were  virtually  derricks;  and 
no  doubt  the  same  people  used  the  device  in  raising 
stones  to  build  their  temples  and  city  walls,  and  in 
putting  into  position  such  massive  sculptures  as  the 
obelisks  of  Egypt  and  the  monster  graven  bulls  and 
lions  of  Nineveh  and  Babylon. 

The  modern  derrick,  made  of  steel,  and  operated 
by  steam  or  electricity,  capable  of  lifting  tons,  yet 
absolutely  obedient  to  the  hand  of  the  engineer,  is  a 
really  wonderful  piece  of  mechanism.  A  steam-scoop, 

[38] 


CRANES    AND    DERRICKS. 


The  upper  figure  shows  a  floating  derrick,  the  lower  right-hand  figure  a  combined  derrick 
and  weighing  machine,  and  the  lower  left-hand  figure  a  so-called  sheerlegs,  which  is  a 
simple  derrick  and  windlass  operated  by  hand  or  by  steam  power  with  the  aid  of  com- 
jxmnd 


HOW  WORK  IS   DONE 

for  example,  excavating  a  gravel  bank,  seems  almost 
a  thing  of  intelligence ;  as  it  gores  into  the  bank  scooping 
up  perhaps  a  half  ton  of  earth,  its  upward  sweeping  head 
reminds  one  of  an  angry  bull.  Then  as  it  swings  lei- 
surely about  and  discharges  its  load  at  just  the  right  spot 
into  an  awaiting  car,  its  hinged  bottom  swings  back 
and  forth  two  or  three  times  before  closing,  with  curious 
resemblance  to  the  jaw  of  a  dog;  the  similarity  being 
heightened  by  the  square  bull-dog-headed  shape  of 
the  scoop  itself.  Yet  this  remarkable  contrivance,  with 
all  its  massive  steel  beams  and  chains  and  cog  wheels, 
employs  no  other  principles  than  the  simple  ones  of 
lever  and  pulley  and  inclined  plane  that  we  have  just 
examined.  The  power  that  must  be  applied  to  produce 
a  given  effect  may  be  calculated  to  a  nicety.  The 
capacities  of  the  machine  are  fully  predetermined  in 
advance  of  its  actual  construction.  But  of  course  this 
is  equally  true  of  every  other  form  of  power-transmitter 
with  which  the  modern  mechanical  engineer  has  to 
deal. 

FRICTION 

In  making  such  calculations,  however,  there  is  an 
additional  element  which  the  engineer  must  consider, 
but  which  we  have  hitherto  disregarded.  In  all  methods 
of  transmission  of  power,  and  indeed  in  all  cases  of 
the  contact  of  one  substance  with  another,  there  is  an 
element  of  loss  through  friction.  This  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  no  substance  is  smooth  except  in  a  relative  sense. 
Even  the  most  highly  polished  glass  or  steel,  when 
viewed  under  the  microscope,  presents  a  surface  covered 

[39] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

with  indentations  and  rugosities.  This  granular  sur- 
face of  even  seemingly  smooth  objects,  is  easily  visu- 
alized through  the  analogy  of  numberless  substances 
that  are  visibly  rough.  Yet  the  vast  practical  impor- 
tance of  this  roughness  is  seldom  considered  by  the 
casual  observer.  In  point  of  fact,  were  it  not  for  the 
roughened  surface  of  all  materials  with  which  we  come 
in  contact,  it  would  be  impossible  for  any  animal  or 
man  to  walk,  nor  could  we  hold  anything  in  our  hands. 
Anyone  who  has  attempted  to  handle  a  fish,  particu- 
larly an  eel,  fresh  from  the  water,  will  recall  the  diffi- 
culty with  which  its  slippery  surface  was  held;  but  it 
may  not  occur  to  everyone  who  has  had  this  experience 
that  all  other  objects  would  similarly  slip  from  the  hand, 
had  their  surfaces  a  similar  smoothness.  The  slippery 
character  of  the  eel  is,  of  course,  due  in  large  part  to 
the  relatively  smooth  surface  of  its  skin,  but  partly 
also  to  the  lubricant  with  which  it  is  covered.  Any 
substance  may  be  rendered  somewhat  smoother  by 
proper  lubrication;  it  is  necessary,  however,  that  the 
lubricant  should  be  something  which  is  not  absorbed 
by  the  substance.  Thus,  wood  is  given  increased 
friction  by  being  moistened  with  oil,  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  is  made  slippery  if  covered  with  graphite,  soap, 
or  any  other  fatty  substances  that  it  does  not  absorb. 

Recalling  the  more  or  less  roughened  surface  of  all 
objects,  the  source  of  friction  is  readily  understood. 
It  depends  upon  the  actual  jutting  of  the  roughened 
surfaces,  one  upon  the  other.  It  virtually  constitutes 
a  force  acting  in  opposition  to  the  motion  of  any  two 
surfaces  upon  each  other.  As  between  any  different 

[40] 


HOW  WORK   IS   DONE 

materials,  under  given  conditions,  it  varies  with  the 
pressure,  in  a  definite  and  measurable  rate,  which  is 
spoken  of  as  the  coefficient  of  friction  for  the  particular 
substances.  It  is  very  much  greater  where  the  two 
substances  slide  over  one  another  than  where  the  one 
rolls  upon  the  other,  as  in  the  case  of  the  wheel.  The 
latter  illustrates  what  is  called  rolling  friction,  and  hi 
practical  mechanics  it  is  used  constantly  to  decrease 
the  loss — as,  for  example,  in  the  wheels  of  wagons  and 
cars.  The  use  of  lubricants  to  decrease  friction  is 
equally  familiar.  Without  them,  as  everyone  knows,  it 
would  be  impossible  to  run  any  wheel  continuously 
upon  an  axle  at  high  speed  for  more  than  a  very  brief 
period,  owing  to  the  great  heat  developed  through 
friction.  Friction  is  indeed  a  perpetual  antagonist  of 
the  mechanician,  and  we  shall  see  endless  illustrations 
of  the  methods  he  employs  to  minimize  its  influence. 
On  the  other  hand,  we  must  recall  that  were  it  rendered 
absolutely  nil,  his  machinery  would  all  be  useless. 
The  car  wheel,  for  example,  would  revolve  indefinitely 
without  stirring  the  train,  were  there  absolutely  no 
friction  between  it  and  the  rail. 

AVAILABLE  SOURCES  OF  ENERGY 

We  have  pointed  out  that  every  body  whatever  con- 
tains a  certain  store  of  energy,  but  it  has  equally  been 
called  to  our  attention  that,  in  the  main,  these  stores 
of  energy  are  not  available  for  practical  use.  There 
are,  however,  various  great  natural  repositories  of 
energy  upon  which  man  is  able  to  draw.  The 

[41] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATTJRE 

chief  of  these  are,  first,  the  muscular  energy  of 
man  himself  and  of  animals;  second,  the  energy  of 
air  in  motion;  third,  the  energy  of  water  in  motion 
or  at  an  elevation;  and  fourth,  the  molecular  and 
atomic  energies  stored  in  coal,  wood,  and  other  com- 
bustible materials.  To  these  we  should  probably 
add  the  energy  of  radio-active  substances — a  form  of 
energy  only  recently  discovered  and  not  as  yet  available 
on  a  large  scale,  but  which  may  sometime  become  so, 
when  new  supplies  of  radio-active  materials  have  been 
discovered.  It  will  be  the  object  of  succeeding  chapters 
to  point  out  the  practical  ways  in  which  these  various 
stores  of  energy  are  drawn  upon  and  made  to  do  work 
for  man's  benefit. 


[42] 


Ill 

THE  ANIMAL  MACHINE 

iHE  muscular  system  is  not  only  the  oldest 
machine  in  existence,  but  also  the  most 
complex.  Moreover,  it  is  otherwise  entitled  to 
precedence,  for  even  to-day,  in  this  so-called  age  of 
steam  and  electricity,  the  muscular  system  remains  by 
far  the  most  important  of  all  machines.  In  the  United 
States  alone  there  are  some  twenty  million  horses  doing 
work  for  man;  and  of  course  no  machine  of  any  sort  is 
ever  put  in  motion  or  continues  indefinitely  hi  operation 
without  aid  supplied  by  human  muscles.  All  in  all,  then, 
it  is  impossible  to  overestimate  the  importance  of  this 
muscular  machine  which  is  at  once  the  oldest  and  the 
most  lasting  of  all  systems  of  utilizing  energy. 

The  physical  laws  that  govern  the  animal  machine 
are  precisely  similar  to  those  that  are  applied  to  other 
mechanisms.  All  the  laws  that  have  been  called  to 
our  attention  must  therefore  be  understood  as  applying 
fully  to  the  muscular  mechanism.  But  in  addition 
to  these  the  muscular  system  has  certain  laws  or  methods 
of  action  of  its  own,  some  of  which  are  not  very  clearly 
understood. 

The  prime  mystery  concerning  the  muscle  is  its 
wonderful  property  of  contracting.  For  practical  pur- 
poses we  may  say  that  it  has  no  other  property;  the 

[43] 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

sole  function  of  the  muscle  is  to  contract.    It  can,  of 
course,  relax,  also,  to  make  ready  for  another  con- 
traction, but  this  is  the  full  extent  of  its  activities.    A 
microscopic  examination  of  the  muscle  shows  that  it  is 
composed  of  minute  fibres,  each  of  which  on  contraction 
swells  up  into  a  spindle  shape.    A  mass  of  such  fibres 
aggregated  together  constitutes  a  muscle,  and  every 
muscle  is  attached  at  either  extremity,  by  means  of  a 
tendon,  to  a  bone.     Both  extremities  of  a  muscle  are 
never  attached  to  the  same  bone — otherwise  the  muscle 
would  be  absolutely  useless.    Usually  there  is  only  a 
single  bone  between  the  two  ends  of  a  muscle,  but  in 
exceptional  cases  there  may  be  more.    As  a  rule,  the 
main  body  of  a  muscle  lies  along  the  bone  to  which 
one  end  of  it  is  attached,  the  other  end  of  the  muscle 
being  attached  to  the  contiguous  bone  placed  not  far 
from  the  point.    The  first  bone,  then,  serves  as  a  ful- 
crum on  which  the  second  bone  moves  as  a  lever,  and, 
as  already  pointed  out,  the  familiar  laws  of  the  lever 
operate  here  as  fully  as  in  the  inanimate  world.    But 
a  moment's  reflection  will  make  it  clear  that  the  object 
effected  by  this  mechanism  is  the  increase  of  motion 
with  relative  loss  of  energy.    In  other  words,  the  muscu- 
lar force  is  applied  to  the  short  end  of  the  lever,  and  a 
far  greater  expenditure  of  force  is  required  when  the 
muscle  contracts  than  the  power  externally  manifested 
would  seem  to  indicate. 

A  moment's  consideration  of  the  mechanism  of  the 
arm,  having  regard  to  the  biceps  muscle  which  flexes 
the  elbow,  will  make  this  clear.  If  a  weight  is  held 
in  the  hand  it  is  perhaps  twelve  inches  from  the  elbow. 

[44] 


THE   ANIMAL  MACHINE 

If,  while  holding  the  weight,  you  will  grasp  the  elbow 
with  the  other  hand,  you  will  feel  the  point  of  attach- 
ment of  the  biceps,  and  discover  that  it  does  not  seem 
to  be,  roughly  speaking,  more  than  about  an  inch  from 
the  joint.  Obviously,  then,  if  you  are  lifting  a  pound 
weight,  the  actual  equivalent  of  energy  expended  by 
the  contracting  biceps  must  be  twelve  pounds.  But, 
in  the  meantime,  when  the  pound  weight  in  your  hand 
moves  through  the  space  of  one  inch,  the  muscle  has 
contracted  by  one-twelfth  of  an  inch;  and  you  may 
sweep  the  weight  through  a  distance  of  two  feet  by  utiliz- 
ing the  two-inch  contraction,  which  represents  about 
the  capacity  of  the  muscle. 

A  similar  consideration  of  the  muscles  of  the  legs  will 
show  how  the  muscular  system  which  is  susceptible  of 
but  trifling  variation  in  size,  gives  to  the  animal  great 
locomotive  power.  With  the  aid  of  a  series  of  levers, 
represented  by  the  bones  of  our  thighs,  legs,  and  feet, 
we  are  able  to  stride  along,  covering  three  or  four  feet 
at  each  step,  while  no  set  of  the  muscles  that  effect  this 
propulsion  varies  in  length  by  more  than  two  or  three 
inches.  It  appears,  then,  that  the  muscular  system 
gives  a  marvelous  illustration  of  capacity  for  storing 
energy  in  a  compact  form  and  utilizing  it  for  the  de- 
velopment of  motion. 

THE  TWO  TYPES  OF  MUSCLES 

The  muscles  of  animals  and  men  alike  are  divided  into 
two  systems,  one  called  voluntary,  the  other  involuntary. 
The  voluntary  muscles,  as  their  name  implies,  are  sub- 

[45] 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

ject  to  the  influence  of  the  will,  and  under  ordinary 
conditions  contract  in  response  to  the  voluntary  nervous 
impulses.  Certain  sets  of  them,  indeed,  as  those 
having  to  do  with  respiration,  have  developed  a  ten- 
dency to  rhythmical  action  through  long  use,  and 
ordinarily  perform  their  functions  without  voluntary 
guidance.  Their  function  may,  however,  become 
voluntary  when  attention  is  directed  toward  it,  and  is 
then  subject  to  the  action  of  the  will  within  certain 
bounds.  Should  a  voluntary  attempt  be  made,  how- 
ever, to  prevent  their  action  indefinitely,  the  so-called 
reflex  mechanism  presently  asserts  itself.  All  of  which 
may  be  easily  attested  by  anyone  who  will  attempt  to 
stop  breathing.  All  systems  of  voluntary  muscles 
are  subject  to  the  influence  of  habit,  and  may  assume 
activities  that  are  only  partially  recognized  by  conscious- 
ness. As  an  illustration  in  point,  the  muscles  involved 
in  walking  come,  in  the  case  of  every  adult,  to  perform 
their  function  without  direct  guidance  of  the  will. 
Such  was  not  the  case,  however,  in  the  early  stage  of 
their  development,  as  the  observation  of  any  child 
learning  to  walk  will  amply  demonstrate.  In  the  case 
of  animals,  however,  even  those  muscles  are  so  under 
the  impress  of  hereditary  tendencies  as  to  perform  their 
functions  spontaneously  almost  from  the  moment  of 
birth.  These,  however,  are  physiological  details  that 
need  not  concern  us  here.  It  suffices  to  recall  that  the 
voluntary  muscles  may  be  directed  by  the  will,  and 
indeed  are  always  under  what  may  be  termed  sub- 
conscious direction,  even  when  the  conscious  attention 
is  not  directed  to  them. 

[46] 


THE   ANIMAL  MACHINE 

The  strictly  involuntary  muscles,  however,  are  placed 
absolutely  beyond  control  of  the  will.  The  most  im- 
portant of  these  muscles  are  those  that  constitute  the 
heart  and  the  diaphragm,  and  that  enter  into  the 
substance  of  the  walls  of  blood  vessels,  and  of  the 
abdominal  organs.  It  is  obvious  that  the  functioning 
of  these  important  organs  could  not  advantageously  be 
left  to  the  direction  of  the  will;  and  so,  in  the  long 
course  of  evolution  they  have  learned,  as  it  were,  to 
take  care  of  themselves,  and  in  so  doing  to  take  care 
of  the  organism,  to  the  life  of  which  they  are  so  abso- 
lutely essential.  As  the  physiologist  views  the  matter, 
no  organism  could  have  developed  which  did  not 
correspondingly  develop  such  involuntary  action  of 
the  vital  organs.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  involuntary 
muscles  differ  from  the  voluntary  muscles  in  that  they 
are  not  connected  with  bones.  Instead  of  being 
thus  attached  to  solid  levers,  they  are  annular  in  struc- 
ture, and  in  contracting  virtually  change  the  size  of  the 
ring  which  their  substance  constitutes.  Each  fibre 
in  contracting  may  be  thought  of  as  pulling  against 
other  fibres,  instead  of  against  a  bony  surface,  and  the 
joint  action  changes  the  size  of  the  organ,  as  is  obvious 
in  the  pulsing  of  the  heart. 

Though  the  rhythmical  contractions  of  the  involuntary 
muscles  are  independent  of  voluntary  control,  it  must 
not  be  supposed  that  they  are  independent  of  the  con- 
trol of  the  central  nervous  mechanism.  On  the  con- 
trary, the  nerve  supply  sent  out  from  the  brain  to  the 
heart  and  to  the  abdominal  organs  is  as  plentiful  and  as 
important  as  that  sent  to  the  voluntary  muscles.  There 

[47] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

is  a  centre  in  the  brain  scarcely  larger  than  the  head 
of  a  pin,  the  destruction  of  which  will  cause  the  heart 
instantly  to  cease  beating  forever.  From  this  centre, 
then,  and  from  the  other  centres  of  the  brain,  impulses 
are  constantly  sent  to  the  involuntary  muscles,  which 
determine  the  rate  of  activity.  Nor  are  these  centres 
absolutely  independent  of  the  seat  of  consciousness,  as 
anyone  will  admit  who  recalls  the  varied  changes  in 
the  heart's  action  under  stress  of  varying  emotions. 

That  the  voluntary  muscles  are  controlled  by  the 
central  nervous  mechanism  needs  no  proof  beyond 
the  appeal  to  our  personal  experiences  of  every  moment. 
You  desire  some  object  that  lies  on  the  table  in  front  of 
you,  and  immediately  your  hand,  thanks  to  the  elaborate 
muscular  mechanism,  reaches  out  and  grasps  it.  And 
this  act  is  but  typical  of  the  thousand  activities  that 
make  up  our  every-day  life.  Everyone  is  aware  that 
the  channel  of  communication  between  the  brain  and 
the  muscular  system  is  found  in  a  system  of  nerves, 
which  it  is  natural  now-a-days  to  liken  to  a  system  of 
telegraph  wires.  We  speak  of  the  impulse  generated 
in  the  brain  as  being  transmitted  along  the  nerves  to 
the  muscle,  causing  that  to  contract.  We  are  even  able 
to  measure  the  speed  of  transfer  of  such  an  impulse. 
It  is  found  to  move  with  relative  slowness,  compassing 
only  about  one  hundred  and  twelve  feet  per  second, 
being  in  this  regard  very  unlike  the  electric  current  with 
which  it  is  so  often  compared.  But  the  precise  nature 
of  this  impulse  is  unknown.  Its  effect,  however,  is 
made  tangible  in  the  muscular  contraction  which  it 
is  its  sole  purpose  to  produce.  The  essential  influence 

[48] 


THE  ANIMAL  MACHINE 

of  the  nerve  impulse  in  the  transaction  is  easily  de- 
monstrable; for  if  the  nerve  cord  is  severed,  as  often 
happens  in  accidents,  the  muscle  supplied  by  that 
nerve  immediately  loses  its  power  of  voluntary  con- 
traction. It  becomes  paralyzed,  as  the  saying  is. 

THE  NATURE  OF  MUSCULAR  ACTION 

Paying  heed,  now,  to  the  muscle  itself,  it  must  be 
freely  admitted  that,  in  the  last  analysis,  the  activities 
of  the  substance  are  as  mysterious  and  as  inexplicable 
as  are  those  involved  in  the  nervous  mechanism.  It  is 
easy  to  demonstrate  that  what  we  have  just  spoken  of 
as  a  muscle  fibre  consists  in  reality  of  a  little  tube  of 
liquid  protoplasm,  and  that  the  change  in  shape  of 
this  protoplasm  constitutes  the  contraction  of  which 
we  are  all  along  speaking.  But  just  what  molecular 
and  atomic  changes  are  involved  in  this  change  of  form 
of  the  protoplasm,  we  cannot  say.  We  know  that  the 
power  to  contract  is  the  one  universal  attribute  of  living 
protoplasm.  This  power  is  equally  wonderful  and 
equally  inexplicable,  whether  manifested  in  the  case 
of  the  muscle  cell  or  in  the  case  of  such  a  formless 
single-celled  creature  as  the  amoeba.  When  we  know 
more  of  molecular  and  atomic  force,  we  may  perhaps 
be  able  to  form  a  mental  picture  of  what  goes  on  in 
the  structure  of  protoplasm  when  it  thus  changes  the 
shape  of  its  mass.  Until  then,  we  must  be  content  to 
accept  the  fact  as  being  the  vital  one  upon  which  all 
the  movements  of  animate  creatures  depend. 

But  if,  here  as  elsewhere,  the  ultimate  activities  of 

voL.vn.-4 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

molecules  and  atoms  lie  beyond  our  ken,  we  may  never- 
theless gain  an  insight  into  the  nature  of  the  substances 
involved.  We  know,  for  example,  that  the  chief  con- 
stituents of  all  protoplasm  are  carbon,  hydrogen, 
oxygen,  and  nitrogen;  and  that  with  these  main  ele- 
ments there  are  traces  of  various  other  elements  such 
as  iron,  sulphur,  phosphorus,  and  sundry  salts.  We 
know  that  when  the  muscle  contracts  some  of  these 
constituents  are  disarranged  through  what  is  spoken 
of  as  chemical  decomposition,  and  that  there  results 
a  change  in  the  substance  of  the  protoplasm,  accom- 
panied by  the  excretion  of  a  certain  portion  of  its  con- 
stituents, and  by  the  liberation  of  heat.  Carbonic 
acid  gas,  for  example,  is  generated  and  is  swept  away 
from  the  muscular  tissues  in  the  ever  active  blood- 
streams, to  be  carried  to  the  lungs  and  there  expelled 
—it  being  a  noxious  poison,  fatal  to  life  if  retained  in 
large  quantities.  Equally  noxious  are  other  substances 
such  as  uric  acid  and  its  compounds,  which  are  also 
results  of  the  breaking  down  of  tissue  that  attends 
muscular  action.  In  a  word,  there  is  an  incessant 
formation  of  waste  products,  due  to  muscular  activity, 
the  removal  of  which  requires  the  constant  service  of 
the  purifying  streams  of  blood  and  of  the  various  ex- 
cretory organs. 

But  this  constant  outflow  of  waste  products  from 
the  muscle  necessitates,  of  course,  in  accordance  with 
the  laws  of  the  conservation  of  matter  and  of  energy, 
an  equally  constant  supply  of  new  matter  to  take  the 
place  of  the  old.  This  supply  of  what  is  virtually  fuel 
to  be  consumed,  enabling  the  muscle  to  perform  its 

[so] 


THE  ANIMAL  MACHINE 

work,  is  brought  to  the  muscle  through  the  streams 
of  blood  which  flow  from  the  heart  in  the  arterial 
channels,  and  in  part  also  through  the  lymphatic  system. 
The  blood  itself  gains  its  supply  from  the  digestive 
system  and  from  the  lungs.  The  digestive  system  sup- 
plies water,  that  all-essential  diluent,  and  a  great  vari- 
ety of  compounds  elaborated  into  the  proper  pabulum; 
while  the  vital  function  of  the  lungs  is  to  supply  oxygen, 
which  must  be  incessantly  present  in  order  that  the 
combustion  which  attends  muscular  activity  may  take 
place.  What  virtually  happens  is  that  fuel  is  sent  from 
the  digestive  system  to  be  burned  in  the  muscular 
system,  with  the  aid  of  oxygen  brought  from  the  lungs. 

In  this  view,  the  muscular  apparatus  is  a  species  of 
heat  engine.  In  point  of  fact,  it  is  a  curiously  delicate 
one  as  regards  the  range  of  conditions  within  which 
it  is  able  to  act.  The  temperature  of  any  given  organism 
is  almost  invariable;  the  human  body,  for  example, 
maintains  an  average  temperature  of  98!  degrees, 
Fahrenheit.  The  range  of  variation  from  this  tem- 
perature in  conditions  of  health  is  rarely  more  than  a 
fraction  of  a  degree;  and  even  under  stress  of  the  most 
severe  fever  the  temperature  never  rises  more  than 
about  eight  degrees  without  a  fatal  result.  That  an 
organism  which  is  producing  heat  in  such  varying  quan- 
tities through  its  varying  muscular  activities  should 
maintain  such  an  equilibrium  of  temperature,  would 
seem  one  of  the  most  marvelous  of  facts,  were  it  not 
so  familiar. 

The  physical  means  by  which  the  heat  thus  gener- 
ated is  rapidly  given  off,  on  occasion,  to  meet  the  varying 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

conditions  of  muscular  activity,  is  largely  dependent 
upon  the  control  of  the  blood  supply,  in  which  involun- 
tary muscles,  similar  to  those  of  the  heart,  are  concerned. 
In  times  of  great  muscular  activity,  when  the  production 
of  heat  is  relatively  enormous,  the  arterioles  that  supply 
the  surface  of  the  body  are  rapidly  dilated  so  that  a 
preponderance  of  blood  circulates  at  the  surface  of 
the  body,  where  it  may  readily  radiate  its  heat  into 
space;  the  vast  system  of  perspiratory  ducts,  with 
which  the  skin  is  everywhere  supplied,  aiding  enor- 
mously in  facilitating  this  result,  through  the  secretion 
of  a  film  of  perspiration,  which  in  evaporating  takes 
up  large  quantities  of  heat. 

The  flushed,  perspiring  face  of  a  person  who  has 
violently  exercised  gives  a  familiar  proof  of  these 
physiological  changes;  and  the  contrary  condition, 
in  which  the  peripheral  circulation  is  restricted,  and  in 
which  the  pores  are  closed,  is  equally  familiar.  More- 
over, the  same  cataneous  mechanism  is  efficient  in  afford- 
ing the  organism  protection  from  the  changes  of  external 
temperature;  though  the  human  machine,  thanks  to 
the  pampering  influence  of  civilization,  requires  addi- 
tional protection  in  the  form  of  clothing. 

APPLICATIONS  OF  MUSCULAR  ENERGY 

Having  thus  outlined  the  conditions  under  which  the 
muscular  machine  performs  its  work,  we  have  now  to 
consider  briefly  the  external  mechanisms  with  the  aid 
of  which  muscular  energy  is  utilized.  Of  course,  the 
simplest  application  of  this  power,  and  the  one  univer- 

[52] 


THE   ANIMAL   MACHINE 

sally  employed  in  the  animal  world  is  that  in  which  a  di- 
rect push  or  pull  is  given  to  the  substance,  the  position 
of  which  it  is  desired  to  change.  We  have  already 
pointed  out  that  there  is  no  essential  difference  between 
pushing  and  pulling.  The  fact  receives  another  illus- 
tration in  considering  the  muscular  mechanism.  We 
speak  of  pushing  when  we  propel  something  away  from 
a  body,  of  pulling  when  we  draw  something  toward 
it,  yet,  as  we  have  just  seen,  each  can  be  accomplished 
merely  through  the  contraction  of  a  set  of  muscles,  acting 
on  differently  disposed  levers.  All  the  bodily  activi- 
ties are  reducible  to  such  muscular  contractions,  and 
the  diversified  movements  in  which  the  organism  con- 
stantly indulges  are  merely  due  to  the  large  number 
and  elaborate  arrangement  of  the  bony  levers  upon 
which  these  muscles  are  operated. 

We  may  well  suppose  that  the  primitive  man  continued 
for  a  long  period  of  time  to  perform  all  such  labors  as 
he  undertook  without  the  aid  of  any  artificial  mech- 
anism; that  is  to  say,  without  having  learned  to  gain 
any  power  beyond  that  which  the  natural  levers  of  his 
body  provided.  A  brief  observation  of  the  actions 
of  a  man  performing  any  piece  of  manual  labor  will, 
however,  quickly  demonstrate  how  ingeniously  the 
bodily  levers  are  employed,  and  how  by  shifting  positions 
the  worker  unconsciously  makes  the  most  of  a  given 
expenditure  of  energy.  By  bending  the  arms  and 
bringing  them  close  to  the  body,  he  is  able  to  shorten 
his  levers  so  that  he  can  lift  a  much  greater  weight  than 
he  could  possibly  raise  with  the  arms  extended.  On 
the  other  hand,  with  the  extended  arm  he  can  strike  ? 

[53] 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

much  more  powerful  blow  than  with  the  shorter  lever 
of  the  flexed  arm.  But  however  ingenious  the  manipu- 
lation of  the  natural  levers,  a  full  utilization  of  muscu- 
lar energy  is  possible  only  when  they  are  supplemented 
with  artificial  aids,  which  constitute  primitive  pieces  of 
machinery. 

These  aids  are  chiefly  of  three  types,  namely,  in- 
clined planes,  friction  reducers,  and  levers.  The  use 
of  the  inclined  plane  was  very  early  discovered  and 
put  into  practise  in  chipped  implements,  which  took 
the  form  of  the  wedge,  in  such  modifications  as  axes, 
knives,  and  spears  of  metal.  All  of  these  implements, 
it  will  be  observed,  consist  essentially  of  inclined  planes, 
adapted  for  piercing  relatively  soft  tissues  of  wood  or 
flesh,  and  hence  serving  purposes  of  the  greatest  prac- 
tical utility. 

The  knife-blade  is  an  extremely  thin  wedge,  to  be 
utilized  by  force  of  pushing,  without  any  great  aid  from 
acquired  momentum.  The  hatchet,  on  the  other  hand 
— and  its  modification  the  axe — has  its  blunter  blade 
fastened  to  a  handle;  that  the  principle  of  the  wedge 
may  be  utilized  at  the  long  end  of  a  lever  and  with  the 
momentum  of  a  swinging  blow.  Ages  before  anyone 
could  have  explained  the  principle  involved  in  such 
obscuring  terms  as  that,  the  implement  itself  was  in  use 
for  the  same  purpose  to  which  it  is  still  applied.  Indeed, 
there  is  probably  no  other  implement  that  has  played 
a  larger  part  in  the  history  of  human  industry.  Even 
in  the  Rough  Stone  Age  it  was  in  full  favor,  and  the 
earliest  metallurgists  produced  it  in  bronze  and  then 
in  iron.  The  blade  of  to-day  is  made  of  the  best  tern- 

[54] 


THE   ANIMAL   MACHINE 

pered  steel,  and  the  handle  or  helve  of  hickory  is  given 
a  slight  curve  that  is  an  improvement  on  the  straight 
handle  formerly  employed;  but  on  the  whole  it  may 
be  said  that  the  axe  is  a  surviving  primitive  implement 
that  has  held  its  own  and  demonstrated  its  utility  in 
every  generation  since  the  dawn,  not  of  history  only, 
but  of  barbarism,  perhaps  even  of  savagery. 

The  saw,  consisting  essentially  of  a  thin  elongated 
blade,  one  ragged  or  toothed  edge,  is  a  scarcely  less 
primitive  and  an  equally  useful  and  familiar  application 
of  the  principle  of  the  inclined  plane — though  it  requires 
a  moment's  reflection  to  see  the  manner  of  application. 
Each  tooth,  however  minute,  is  an  inclined  plane,  cal- 
culated to  slide  over  the  tissue  of  wood  or  stone  or  iron 
even,  yet  to  tear  at  the  tissue  with  its  point,  and,  with  the 
power  of  numbers,  ultimately  wear  it  away. 

THE  WHEEL  AND  AXLE 

The  primitive  friction  reducer,  which  continues  in 
use  to  the  present  day  unmodified  in  principle,  is  the 
wheel  revolving  on  an  axle.  Doubtless  man  had 
reached  a  very  high  state  of  barbarism  before  he  in- 
vented such  a  wheel.  The  American  Indian,  for  exam- 
ple, knew  no  better  method  than  to  carry  his  heavy 
burdens  on  his  shoulders,  or  drag  them  along  the  ground, 
with  at  most  a  pair  of  parallel  poles  or  runners  to  modify 
the  friction;  every  move  representing  a  very  wasteful 
expenditure  of  energy.  But  the  pre-historic  man  of  the 
old  world  had  made  the  wonderful  discovery  that  a 
wheel  revolving  on  an  axle  vastly  reduces  the  friction 

tssi 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

between  a  weight  and  the  earth,  and  thus  enables  a 
man  or  a  woman  to  convey  a  load  that  would  be  far 
beyond  his  or  her  unaided  powers.  It  is  well  to  use 
both  genders  in  this  illustration,  since  among  primitive 
peoples  it  is  usually  the  woman  who  is  the  bearer  of 
burdens.  And  indeed  to  this  day  one  may  see  the 
women  of  Italy  and  Germany  bearing  large  burdens 
on  their  backs  and  heads,  and  dragging  carts  about  the 
streets,  quite  after  the  primitive  method. 

The  more  one  considers  the  mechanism,  the  more 
one  must  marvel  at  the  ingenuity  of  the  pre-historic 
man  who  invented  the  wheel  and  axle.  Its  utility- 
is  sufficiently  obvious  once  the  thing  has  been  done. 
In  point  of  fact,  it  so  enormously  reduces  the  friction 
that  a  man  may  convey  ten  times  the  burden  with  its 
aid  that  he  can  without  it.  But  how  was  the  primitive 
man,  with  his  small  knowledge  of  mechanics,  to  predict 
such  a  result?  In  point  of  fact,  of  course,  he  made 
no  such  prediction.  Doubtless  his  attention  was 
first  called  to  the  utility  of  rolling  bodies  by  a  chance 
observation  of  dragging  a  burden  along  a  pebbly  beach, 
or  over  rolling  stones.  The  observation  of  logs  or 
round  stones  rolling  down  a  hill  might  also  have  stimu- 
lated the  imagination  of  some  inventive  genius. 

Probably  logs  placed  beneath  heavy  weights,  such 
as  are  still  employed  sometimes  in  moving  houses,  were 
utilized  now  and  again  for  many  generations  before 
the  idea  of  a  narrow  section  of  a  log  adjusted  on  an 
axis  was  evolved.  But  be  that  as  it  may,  this  idea  was 
put  into  practise  before  the  historic  period  begins,  and 
we  find  the  earliest  civilized  races  of  which  we  have 

[56] 


THE   ANIMAL   MACHINE 

record — those,  namely,  of  Old  Egypt  and  of  Old  Baby- 
lonia— in  full  possession  of  the  principle  of  the  wheel 
as  applied  to  vehicles.  Modern  mechanics  have,  of 
course,  improved  the  mechanism  as  regards  details, 
but  the  wheels  depicted  in  Old  Egyptian  and  Babylonian 
inscriptions  are  curiously  similar  to  the  most  modern 
types.  Indeed,  the  wheel  is  a  striking  illustration 
of  a  mechanism  which  continued  century  after  century 
to  serve  the  purposes  of  the  practical  worker,  with  seem- 
ingly no  prospect  of  displacement. 

MODIFIED  LEVERS 

For  the  rest,  the  mechanisms  which  primitive  man 
learned  early  to  use  in  adding  to  his  working  efficiency, 
and  which  are  still  used  by  the  hand  laborer,  are  vir- 
tually all  modifications  of  our  familiar  type-implement, 
the  lever.  A  moment's  reflection  will  show  that  the 
diversified  purposes  of  the  crowbar,  hoe,  shovel,  ham- 
mer, drill,  chisel,  are  all  accomplished  with  the  aid  of 
the  same  principles.  The  crowbar,  for  example, 
enables  man  to  regain  the  power  which  he  lost  when 
his  members  were  adapted  to  locomotion.  His  hands, 
left  to  themselves,  as  we  have  already  pointed  out,  give 
but  inadequate  expression  to  the  power  of  his  muscles. 
But  by  grasping  the  long  end  of  such  a  lever  as  the 
crowbar,  he  is  enabled  to  utilize  his  entire  weight  in 
addition  to  his  muscular  strength,  and,  with  the  aid 
of  this  lever,  to  lift  many  times  his  weight. 

The  hoe,  on  the  other  hand,  becomes  virtually  a 
lengthened  arm,  enabling  a  very  slight  muscular  motion 

[57] 


THE   CONQUEST   OF  NATURE 

to  be  transformed  into  the  long  sweep  of  the  implement, 
so  that  with  small  expenditure  of  energy  the  desired 
work  is  accomplished.  Similarly,  the  sledge  and  the 
axe  lengthen  out  the  lever  of  the  arms,  so  that  great 
momentum  is  readily  acquired,  and  with  the  aid  of 
inertia  a  relatively  enormous  force  can  be  applied. 
It  will  be  observed  that  a  laborer  in  raising  a  heavy 
sledge  brings  the  head  of  the  implement  near  his 
body,  thus  shortening  the  leverage  and  gaining  power 
at  the  expense  of  speed;  but  extends  his  arms  to  their 
full  length  as  the  sledge  falls,  having  now  the  aid  of 
gravitation,  to  gain  the  full  advantage  of  the  long  arm 
of  the  lever  in  acquiring  momentum. 

Even  such  elaborately  modified  implements  as  the 
treadmill  and  the  rowboat  are  operated  on  the  principle 
of  the  lever.  These  also  are  mechanisms  that  have 
come  down  to  us  from  a  high  antiquity.  Their  utility, 
however,  has  been  greatly  decreased  in  modern  times, 
by  the  substitution  of  more  elaborate  and  economical 
mechanisms  for  accomplishing  their  respective  pur- 
poses. The  treadmill,  indeed — which  might  be  likened 
to  an  overshot  waterwheel  in  which  the  human  foot 
supplied  the  place  of  the  falling  water  in  giving  power 
—has  become  obsolete,  though  a  modification  of  it, 
to  be  driven  by  animal  power,  is  still  sometimes  used, 
as  we  shall  see  in  a  moment. 

All  these  are  illustrations  of  mechanisms  with  the  aid 
of  which  human  labor  is  made  effective.  They  show  the 
devices  by  which  primitive  man  used  his  ingenuity  in 
making  his  muscular  system  a  more  effective  machine 
for  the  performance  of  work.  But  perhaps  the  most 

[58] 


THE  ANIMAL  MACHINE 

ingenious  feat  of  afl  which  our  primitive  ancestor  accom- 
plished was  in  learning  to  utilize  the  muscular  energy 
of  other  animals.  Of  course  the  example  was  always 
before  him  in  the  observed  activity  of  the  animals  on 
every  side.  Nevertheless,  it  was  doubtless  long  before 
the  idea  suggested  itself,  and  probably  longer  still  before 
it  was  put  into  practise,  of  utilizing  this  almost  inex- 
haustible natural  supply  of  working  energy. 

DOMESTICATED  ANIMALS 

The  first  animal  domesticated  is  believed  to  have 
been  the  dog,  and  this  animal  is  still  used,  as  everyone 
knows,  as  a  beast  of  burden  in  the  far  North,  and  in 
some  European  cities,  particularly  in  those  of  Germany. 
Subsequently  the  ox  was  domesticated,  but  it  is  probable 
that  for  a  vast  period  of  time  it  was  used  for  food  pur- 
poses, rather  than  as  a  beast  of  burden.  And  lastly 
the  horse,  the  worker  par  excellence,  was  made  captive 
by  some  Asiatic  tribes  having  the  genius  of  invention, 
and  in  due  course  this  fleetest  of  carriers  and  most 
efficient  of  draught  animals  was  introduced  into  all 
civilized  nations. 

Doubtless  for  a  long  time  the  energy  of  the  horse 
was  utilized  in  an  uneconomical  way,  through  binding 
the  burden  on  its  back,  or  causing  it  to  drag  the  burden 
along  the  ground.  But  this  is  inferential,  since,  as 
we  have  seen,  the  wheel  was  invented  in  pre-historic 
times,  and  at  the  dawn  of  history  we  find  the  Babylon- 
ians driving  harnessed  horses  attached  to  wheeled  vehi- 
cles. From  that  day  to  this  the  method  of  using 

[59] 


THE   CONQUEST   OF  NATURE 

horse-power  has  not  greatly  changed.  The  vast  major- 
ity of  the  many  millions  of  horses  that  are  employed 
every  day  hi  helping  on  the  world's  work,  use  their 
strength  without  gain  or  loss  through  leverage,  and 
with  only  the  aid  of  rolling  friction  to  increase  their 
capacity  as  beasts  of  burden. 

To  a  certain  extent  horse-power  is  still  used  with 
the  aid  of  the  modified  treadmill  just  referred  to— 
consisting  essentially  of  an  inclined  plane  of  flexible 
mechanism  made  into  an  endless  platform,  which  the 
horse  causes  to  revolve  as  he  goes  through  the  move- 
ments of  walking  upon  it.  In  agricultural  districts  this 
form  of  power  is  still  sometimes  used  to  run  threshing 
machines,  cider  mills,  wood-saws,  and  the  like.  An- 
other application  of  horse-power  to  the  same  ends  is 
accomplished  through  harnessing  a  horse  to  a  long 
lever  like  the  spoke  of  a  wheel,  fastened  to  an  axis, 
which  is  made  to  revolve  as  the  horse  walks  about  it. 
Several  horses  are  sometimes  hitched  to  such  a  mech- 
anism, which  becomes  then  a  wheel  of  several  spokes. 
But  this  mechanism,  which  was  common  enough  in 
agricultural  districts  two  or  three  decades  ago,  has 
been  practically  superseded  in  recent  years  by  the  per- 
ambulatory  steam  engine. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  amount  of  work  which  a  horse 
can  accomplish  must  vary  greatly  with  the  size  and 
quality  of  the  horse,  and  with  the  particular  method 
by  which  its  energy  is  applied.  For  the  purposes  of 
comparison,  however,  an  arbitrary  amount  of  work 
has  been  fixed  upon  as  constituting  what  is  called  a 
horse-power.  This  amount  is  the  equivalent  of  raising 

[60] 


TWO    APPARATUSES    FOR    THE    UTILIZATION    OF    ANIMAL    POWER 

The  upper  figure  shows  the  type  of  portable  horse-power  machine  used  for 
threshing  grain  in  1851.  The  lower  figure  is  an  inclined-plane  horse-gear.  The 
horse  stands  on  the  sloping  platform  tied  to  the  bar  in  front,  so  that  it  is  compelled 

to  walk  as  the  platform  recedes. 


THK    ANIMAL   MACHINE 

thirty-three  thousand  pounds  of  weight  to  the  height  of 
one  foot  in  one  minute.  It  would  be  hard  to  say  just 
why  this  particular  standard  was  fixed  upon,  since  it 
certainly  represents  more  than  the  average  capacity 
of  a  horse.  It  is,  however,  a  standard  which  long 
usage  (it  was  first  suggested  by  Watt,  of  steam-engine 
fame)  has  rendered  convenient,  and  one  which  the 
machinist  refers  to  constantly  in  speaking  of  the  effi- 
ciency of  the  various  types  of  artificial  machines.  All 
questions  of  the  exact  legitimacy  of  this  particular 
standard  aside,  it  was  highly  appropriate  that  the  labor 
of  the  horse,  which  has  made  up  so  large  a  share  of 
the  labor  of  the  past,  and  which  is  still  so  extensively 
utilized,  should  continue  to  be  taken  as  the  measuring 
standard  of  the  world's  work. 


[61] 


IV 


THE  WORK  OF  AIR  AND  WATER 

THE  store  of  energy  contained  in  the  atmos- 
phere and  in  the  waters  of  the  globe  is  in- 
exhaustible. Its  amount  is  beyond  all  cal- 
culation; or  if  it  were  vaguely  calculated  the  figures 
would  be  quite  incomprehensible  from  their  very 
magnitude.  It  is  not,  however,  an  altogether  simple 
matter  to  make  this  energy  available  for  the  pur- 
poses of  useful  work.  We  find  that  throughout 
antiquity  comparatively  little  use  was  made  of  either 
wind  or  water  in  their  application  to  machinery. 

Doubtless  the  earliest  use  of  air  as  a  motive  power 
was  through  the  application  of  sails  to  boats.  We 
know  that  the  Phoenicians  used  a  simple  form  of  sail, 
and  no  doubt  their  example  was  followed  by  all  the 
maritime  peoples  of  subsequent  periods.  But  the  use 
of  the  sail  even  by  the  Phoenicians  was  as  a  compara- 
tively unimportant  accessory  to  the  galaxies  of  oars, 
which  formed  the  chief  motive  power.  The  elabora- 
tion of  sails  of  various  types,  adequate  in  extent  to 
propel  large  ships,  and  capable  of  being  adjusted  so 
as  to  take  advantage  of  winds  blowing  from  almost  any 
quarter,  was  a  development  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

The  possibilities  of  work  with  the  aid  of  running 


THE   WORK   OF  AIR  AND  WATER 

water  were  also  but  little  understood  by  the  ancients. 
In  the  days  of  slave  labor  it  was  scarcely  worth  while 
to  tax  man's  ingenuity  to  invent  machines,  since  so 
efficient  a  one  was  provided  by  nature.  Yet  the  prop- 
erties of  both  air  and  water  were  studied  by  various 
mechanical  philosophers,  at  the  head  of  whom  were 
Archimedes,  whose  work  has  already  been  referred  to, 
and  the  famous  Alexandrian,  Ctesibius,  whose  investi- 
gations became  familiar  through  the  publications  of  his 
pupil,  Hero. 

Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  device  invented  by  Ctes- 
ibius was  a  fire-engine,  consisting  of  an  arrangement 
of  valves  constituting  a  pump,  and  operating  on  the 
principle  which  is  still  in  vogue.  It  is  known,  however, 
that  the  Egyptians  of  a  much  earlier  period  used 
buckets  having  valves  in  their  bottoms,  and  these  per- 
haps furnished  the  foundation  for  the  idea  of  Ctesibius. 
It  is  unnecessary  to  give  details  of  this  fire-engine. 
It  may  be  noted,  however,  that  the  principle  of  the  lever 
is  the  one  employed  in  its  operation  to  gain  power.  A 
valve  consists  essentially  of  any  simple  hinged  sub- 
stance, arranged  so  that  it  may  rise  or  fall,  alternately 
opening  and  closing  an  aperture.  A  mere  flap  of 
leather,  nailed  on  one  edge,  serves  as  a  tolerably  effec- 
tive valve.  At  least  one  of  the  valves  used  by  Ctesibius 
was  a  hinged  piece  of  smooth  metal.  A  piston  fitted 
in  a  cylinder  supplies  suction  when  the  lever  is  raised, 
and  pressure  when  it  is  compressed,  alternately  opening 
the  valve  and  closing  the  valve  through  which  the  water 
enters  the  tube.  Meantime  a  second  valve  alternating 
with  the  first  permits  the  water  to  enter  the  chamber 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

containing  air,  which  through  its  elasticity  and  pressure 
equalizes  the  force  of  the  stream  that  is  ejected  from 
the  chamber  through  the  hose. 


SUCTION  AND  PRESSURE 

In  the  construction  of  this  and  various  other  appara- 
tus, Ctesibius  and  Hero  were  led  to  make  careful 
studies  of  the  phenomena  of  suction.  But  in  this 
they  were  not  alone,  since  numerous  of  their  predecessors 
had  studied  the  subject,  and  such  an  apparatus  as 
the  surgeon's  cupping  glass  was  familiarly  known 
several  centuries  before  the  Christian  era.  The  cupping 
glass,  as  perhaps  should  be  explained  to  the  reader  of 
the  present  day — since  the  apparatus  went  out  of 
vogue  in  ordinary  medical  practise  two  or  three 
generations  ago — consists  of  a  glass  cup  in  which  the  air 
is  exhausted,  so  as  to  suck  blood  from  any  part  of  the 
surface  of  a  body  to  which  it  is  applied.  Hero  describes 
a  method  of  exhausting  air  by  which  such  suction  may 
be  facilitated.  But  neither  he  nor  any  other  philoso- 
pher of  his  period  at  all  understood  the  real  nature  of 
this  suction,  notwithstanding  their  perfect  familiarity 
with  numerous  of  its  phenomena.  It  was  known, 
for  example,  that  when  a  tube  closed  at  one  end  is 
filled  with  water  and  inverted  with  the  open  end  beneath 
the  surface  of  the  water,  the  water  remains  in  the  tube, 
although  one  might  naturally  expect  that  it  would  obey 
the  impulses  of  gravitation  and  run  out,  leaving  the 
tube  empty.  A  familiar  explanation  of  this  and  allied 
phenomena  throughout  antiquity  was  found  in  the 

[64] 


THE   WORK  OF   AIR  AND   WATER 

saying  that  "Nature  abhors  a  vacuum."  This  expla- 
nation, which  of  course  amounts  to  no  explanation 
at  all,  is  fairly  illustrative  of  the  method  of  metaphysical 
word-juggling  that  served  so  largely  among  the  earlier 
philosophers  in  explanation  of  the  mysteries  of  physical 
science. 

The  real  explanation  of  the  phenomena  of  suction 
was  not  arrived  at  until  the  revival  of  learning  in  the 
seventeenth  century.  Then  Torricelli,  the  pupil  of 
Galileo,  demonstrated  that  the  word  suction,  as  com- 
monly applied,  had  no  proper  application;  and  that 
the  phenomena  hitherto  ascribed  to  it  were  really  due 
to  the  pressure  of  the  atmosphere.  A  vacuum  is 
merely  an  enclosed  space  deprived  of  air,  and  the  "ab- 
horrence" that  Nature  shows  to  such  a  space  is  due 
to  the  fact  that  air  has  weight  and  presses  in  every 
direction,  and  hence  tends  to  invade  every  space  to 
which  it  can  gain  access.  It  was  presently  discovered 
that  if  the  inverted  tube  in  which  the  water  stands 
was  made  high  enough,  the  water  will  no  longer  fill  it, 
but  will  sink  to  a  certain  level.  The  height  at  which 
it  will  stand  is  about  thirty  feet;  above  that  height  a 
vacuum  will  be  formed,  which,  for  some  reason,  Nature 
seems  not  to  abhor.  The  reason  is  that  the  weight 
of  any  given  column  of  water  about  thirty  feet  in  height 
is  just  balanced  by  the  weight  of  a  corresponding  column 
of  atmosphere.  The  experiments  that  gave  the  proof 
of  this  were  made  by  the  famous  Englishman,  Boyle. 
He  showed  that  if  the  heavy  liquid,  mercury,  is  used 
in  place  of  water,  then  the  suspended  column  will  be 
only  about  thirty  inches  in  height.  The  weight  or 

VOL.  vi. -5 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

pressure  of  the  atmosphere  at  sea  level,  as  measured 
by  these  experiments,  is  about  fifteen  pounds  to  the 
square  inch. 

Boyle's  further  experiments  with  the  air  and  with 
other  gases  developed  the  fact  that  the  pressure  ex- 
erted by  any  given  quantity  of  gas  is  proportional  to 
the  external  pressure  to  which  it  is  subjected,  which, 
after  all,  is  only  a  special  application  of  the  law  that 
action  and  reaction  are  equal.  The  further  fact  was 
developed  that  under  pressure  a  gas  decreases  at  a 
fixed  rate  in  bulk.  A  general  law,  expressing  these 
facts  in  the  phrase  that  density  and  elasticity  vary 
inversely  with  the  pressure  in  a  precise  ratio,  was 
developed  by  Boyle  and  the  Frenchman,  Mario tte, 
independently,  and  bears  the  name  of  both  of  its  dis- 
coverers. No  immediate  application  of  the  law  to 
the  practical  purposes  of  the  worker  was  made,  how- 
ever, and  it  is  only  in  recent  years  that  compressed 
air  has  been  extensively  employed  as  a  motive  power. 
Even  now  it  has  not  proved  a  great  commercial  success, 
because  other  more  economical  methods  of  power  pro- 
duction are  available.  In  particular  cases,  however, 
it  has  a  certain  utility,  as  a  relatively  large  available 
source  of  energy  may  be  condensed  into  a  very  small 
receptacle. 

A  very  striking  experiment  illustrating  the  pressure 
of  the  air  was  made  by  a  famous  contemporary  of 
Boyle  and  Mariotte,  by  the  name  of  Otto  von  Guericke. 
He  connected  an  air  pump  with  a  large  brass  sphere, 
composed  of  two  hemispheres,  the  edges  of  which 
fitted  smoothly,  but  were  not  connected  by  any  mech- 

[66] 


THE  WORK  OF  AIR  AND  WATER 

anism.  Under  ordinary  conditions  the  hemispheres 
would  fall  apart  readily,  but  von  Guericke  proved,  by 
a  famous  public  demonstration,  that  when  the  air  was 
exhausted  in  the  sphere,  teams  of  horses  pulling  in 
opposite  directions  on  the  hemispheres  could  not 
separate  them.  This  is  famous  as  the  experiment  of 
the  Magdeburg  spheres,  and  it  is  often  repeated  on  a 
smaller  scale  in  the  modern  physical  laboratory,  to 
the  astonishment  of  the  tyro  in  physical  experiments. 

The  first  question  that  usually  comes  to  the  mind 
of  anyone  who  has  personally  witnessed  such  an  experi- 
ment, is  the  question  as  to  how  the  human  body  can 
withstand  the  tremendous  force  to  which  it  is  subjected 
by  an  atmosphere  exerting  a  pressure  of  fifteen  pounds 
on  every  square  inch  of  its  surface.  The  explanation 
is  found  hi  the  uniform  distribution  of  the  pressure, 
the  influence  of  which  is  thus  counteracted,  and  by 
the  fact  that  the  tissues  themselves  contain  everywhere 
a  certain  amount  of  air  at  the  same  pressure.  The 
familiar  experiment  of  holding  the  hand  over  an  ex- 
hausted glass  cylinder — which  experiment  is  indeed 
but  a  modification  of  the  use  of  the  cupping  glass  above 
referred  to — illustrates  very  forcibly  the  insupportable 
difficulties  which  the  human  body  would  encounter 
were  not  its  entire  surface  uniformly  subjected  to  the 
atmospheric  pressure. 

AIR  IN  MOTION 

At  about  the  time  when  the  scientific  experiments 
with  the  pressure  of  gases  were  being  made,  prac- 
tical studies  of  the  effects  of  masses  of  air  in  motion 


THE   CONQUEST  OF   NATURE 

were  undertaken  by  the  Dutch  philosopher,  Servinus. 
The  use  of  the  windmill  in  Holland  as  a  means  of  gen- 
erating power  doubtless  suggested  to  Servinus  the  possi- 
bility of  attaching  a  sail  to  a  land  vehicle.  He  made 
the  experiment,  and  in  the  year  1600  constructed  a 
sailing  car  which,  propelled  by  the  wind,  traversed  the 
land  to  a  considerable  distance,  on  one  occasion  con- 
veying a  company  of  which  Prince  Maurice  of  Orange 
was  a  member.  But  his  experiments  have  seldom 
been  repeated,  and  indeed  their  lack  of  practical  feasi- 
bility scarcely  needs  demonstration. 

The  utility  of  the  wind,  however,  in  generating  the 
power  in  a  stationary  mechanism  is  familiar  to  everyone. 
Windmills  were  constructed  at  a  comparatively  early 
period,  and  notwithstanding  all  the  recent  progress  in 
the  development  of  steam  and  electrical  power,  this 
relatively  primitive  so-called  prime  mover  still  holds 
its  own  in  agricultural  districts,  particularly  in  its  appli- 
cation to  pumps.  A  windmill  consists  of  a  series  of  in- 
clined planes,  each  of  which  forms  one  of  the  radii  of  a 
circle,  or  spokes  of  a  wheel,  to  the  axle  of  which  a  gearing 
is  adjusted  by  which  the  power  generated  is  utilized.  The 
wheel  is  made  to  face  the  wind  by  the  wind  itself  blowing 
against  a  sort  of  rudder  which  projects  from  the  axis. 
The  wind  blowing  against  the  inclined  surfaces  or 
vanes  of  the  wheel  causes  each  vane  to  move  in  accord- 
ance with  the  law  of  component  forces,  thus  revolving 
the  wheel  as  a  whole. 

It  has  been  affirmed  that  the  Romans  had  windmills, 
but  "the  silence  of  Vitruvius,  Seneca,  and  Chrysostom, 
who  have  spoken  of  the  advantages  of  the  wind,  makes 

[68] 


WINDMILLS    OF   ANCIENT    AND   MODERN   TYPES. 

The  smaller  figures  show  Dutch  windmills  of  the  present  day,  many  of  which  are 
identical  in  structure  with  the  windmills  of  the  middle  ages.  It  will  be  seen  that  the 
sails  can  be  furled  when  desired  to  put  the  mill  out  of  operation.  In  the  mill  of  modern 
type  (large  figure)  the  same  effect  is  produced  by  slanting  the  slats  of  the  wheel. 


THE   WORK   OF   AIR  AND   WATER 

this  opinion  questionable."  It  has  been  supposed 
by  other  writers  that  windmills  were  used  in  France  in 
the  sixth  century,  while  still  others  have  maintained 
that  this  mechanism  was  unknown  in  Europe  until 
the  time  of  the  Crusades.  All  that  is  tolerably  certain 
is  that  in  the  twelfth  century  windmills  were  in  use  in 
France  and  England.  It  is  recorded  that  when  they 
began  to  be  somewhat  common  Pope  Celestine  III. 
determined  that  the  tithes  of  them  belonged  to  the  clergy. 

INHERENT    DEFECTS    OF    THE    WINDMILL 

The  mediaeval  European  windmill  was  supplied 
with  great  sails  of  cloth,  and  its  picturesque  appear- 
ance has  been  made  familiar  to  everyone  through  the 
famous  tale  of  Don  Quixote.  The  modern  windmill, 
acting  on  precisely  the  same  principle,  is  a  comparatively 
small  affair,  comprising  many  vanes  of  metal,  and 
constituting  a  far  more  practical  machine.  The  great 
defect  of  all  windmills,  however,  is  found  in  the  fact 
that  of  necessity  they  furnish  such  variable  power, 
since  the  force  of  the  wind  is  incessantly  changing. 
Worst  of  all,  there  may  be  protracted  periods  of  atmos- 
pheric calm,  during  which,  of  course,  the  windmill 
ceases  to  have  any  utility  whatever.  This  uneradicable 
defect  relegates  the  windmill  to  a  subordinate  place 
among  prime  movers,  yet  on  the  other  hand,  its  cheap- 
ness insures  its  employment  for  a  long  time  to  come, 
and  the  industry  of  manufacturing  windmills  continues 
to  be  an  important  one,  particularly  in  the  United 
States. 

[69] 


THE  CONQUEST  OP  NATURE 

RUNNING  WATER 

The  aggregate  amount  of  work  accomplished  with 
the  aid  of  the  wind  is  but  trifling,  compared  with  that 
which  is  accomplished  with  the  aid  of  water.  The 
supply  of  water  is  practically  inexhaustible,  and  this 
fluid  being  much  more  manageable  than  air,  can  be 
made  a  far  more  dependable  aid  to  the  worker.  Every 
stream,  whatever  its  rate  of  flow,  represents  an  enor- 
mous store  of  potential  energy.  A  cubic  foot  of  water 
weighs  about  sixty-two  and  a  half  pounds.  The 
working  capacity  of  any  mass  of  water  is  represented 
by  one-half  its  weight  into  the  square  of  its  velocity; 
or,  stated  otherwise,  by  its  weight  into  the  distance  of  its 
fall.  Now,  since  the  interiors  of  the  continents,  where 
rivers  find  their  sources,  are  often  elevated  by  some 
hundreds  or  even  thousands  of  feet,  it  follows  that  the 
working  energy  expended — and  for  the  most  part 
wasted — by  the  aggregate  water  current  of  the  world 
is  beyond  all  calculation.  Meantime,  however,  a 
portion  of  the  energy  which  in  the  aggregate  represents 
an  enormous  working  power  is  utilized  with  the  aid 
of  various  types  of  water  wheels. 

Watermills  appear  to  have  been  introduced  in  the 
time  of  Mithridates,  Julius  Caesar,  and  Cicero.  Strabo 
informs  us  that  there  was  a  watermill  near  the  residence 
of  Mithridates;  and  we  learn  from  Pomponius  Sabinus, 
that  the  first  mill  seen  at  Rome  was  erected  on  the 
Tiber,  a  little  before  the  time  of  Augustus.  That  they 
existed  in  the  time  of  Augustus  is  obvious  from  the  de- 
scription given  of  them  by  Vitruvius,  and  the  epigram 

[70] 


THE  WORK   OF  AIR  AND  WATER 

of  Antipater,  who  is  supposed  to  have  lived  in  the  time 
of  Cicero.  But  though  mills  driven  by  water  were 
introduced  at  this  early  period,  yet  public  mills  did 
not  appear  till  the  time  of  Honorius  and  Arcadius. 
They  were  erected  on  three  canals,  which  conveyed 
water  to  the  city,  and  the  greater  number  of  them  lay 
under  Mount  Janiculum.  When  the  Gojths  besieged 
Rome  in  536,  and  stopped  the  large  aqueduct  and  con- 
sequently the  mills,  Belisarius  appears  to  have  con- 
structed, for  the  first  time,  floating  mills  upon  the  Tiber. 
Mills  driven  by  the  tide  existed  at  Venice  in  the  year 
1046,  or  at  least  in  1078. 

The  older  types  of  water  wheel  are  exceedingly  simple 
in  construction,  consisting  merely  of  vertical  wheels 
revolving  on  horizontal  axes,  and  so  placed  as  to  receive 
the  weight  or  pressure  of  the  water  on  paddles  or  buck- 
ets at  their  circumference.  The  water  might  be  al- 
lowed to  rush  under  the  wheel,  thus  constituting  an 
under-shot  wheel;  or  more  commonly  it  flows  from 
above,  constituting  an  over-shot  wheel.  Where  the 
natural  fall  is  not  available,  dams  are  employed  to 
supply  an  artificial  fall. 

This  primitive  type  of  water  wheel  has  been  prac- 
tically abandoned  within  the  last  generation,  its  place 
having  been  taken  by  the  much  more  efficient  type  of 
wheel  known  as  the  turbine.  This  consists  of  a  wheel, 
usually  adjusted  on  a  vertical  axis,  and  acting  on  what  is 
virtually  the  principle  of  a  windmill.  To  gain  a  mental 
picture  of  the  turbine  in  its  simplest  form,  one  might 
imagine  the  propelling  screw  of  a  steamship,  placed 
horizontally  in  a  tube,  so  that  the  water  could  rush 

[71] 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

against  its  blades.  The  tiny  windmills  which  children 
often  make  by  twisting  pieces  of  paper  illustrate  the 
same  principle.  Of  course,  in  its  developed  form  the 
turbine  is  somewhat  elaborated,  in  the  aim  to  utilize  as 
large  a  proportion  of  the  energy  of  the  falling  water 
as  is  possible  ;  but  the  principle  remains  the  same. 

The  turbine  wheel  was  invented  by  a  Frenchman 
named  Fourneyron,  about  three-quarters  of  a  century 
ago  (1827),  but  its  great  popularity,  in  America  in 
particular,  is  a  matter  of  the  last  twenty  or  thirty  years. 
To-day  it  has  virtually  supplanted  every  other  type 
of  water  wheel.  To  use  any  other  is  indeed  a  wasteful 
extravagance,  as  the  perfected  turbine  makes  available 
more  than  eighty  per  cent,  of  the  kinetic  energy  of  any 
mass  of  falling  water.  A  turbine  wheel  two  feet  in 
diameter  is  able  to  do  the  work  of  an  enormous  wheel 
of  the  old  type. 

Turbine  wheels  are  of  several  types,  one  operating 
in  a  closed  tube  to  which  air  has  no  access,  and  another 
in  an  open  space  in  the  presence  of  air.  The  water 
may  also  be  made  to  enter  the  turbine  at  the  side  or  from 
below,  thus  serving  to  support  the  weight  of  the  mech- 
anism— a  consideration  of  great  importance  in  the  case 
of  such  gigantic  turbines  as  those  that  are  employed 
at  Niagara  Falls,  which  we  shall  have  occasion  to 
examine  in  detail  in  a  later  chapter. 

The  power  generated  by  a  revolution  of  the  turbine 
wheel  may,  of  course,  be  utilized  directly  by  belts  or 
gearings  attached  to  its  axle,  or  it  may  be  transferred 
to  a  distance,  with  the  aid  of  a  dynamo  generating 
electricity.  The  latter  possibility,  which  has  only  re- 

[72] 


WATER    WHEELS. 

Fig.  i  shows  a  model  of  the  so-called  breast  wheel,  a  familiar  type  of  water 
wheel  that  has  been  in  use  since  the  time  of  the  Romans.  Figs.  2  and  3  show  similar 
wheels  as  used  to-day  in  Belgium.  Fig.  4  shows  a  model  of  Fourneyron's  turbine. 
This  wheel  was  made  in  1837,  but  the  original  turbine  was  introduced  by  Fourneyroti 
in  iS^;.  The  turbine  wheel  has  now  almost  supplanted  the  other  forms  of  water 
wheel  except  in  rural  distr; 


THE   WORK   OF   AIR   AND   WATER 

cently  been  developed,  and  which  we  shall  have  occasion 
to  examine  in  detail  in  connection  with  our  studies  of 
the  power  at  Niagara,  gives  a  new  field  of  usefulness  to 
the  turbine  wheel,  and  makes  it  probable  that  this 
form  of  power  will  be  vastly  more  used  in  the  future 
than  it  has  been  in  the  past.  Indeed,  it  would  not  be 
surprising  were  it  ultimately  to  become  the  prime  source 
of  working  energy  as  utilized  in  every  department  of 
the  world's  work. 

Mr.  Edward  H.  Sanborn,  in  an  article  on  Motive 
Power  Appliances  in  the  Twelfth  Census  Report  of  the 
United  States,  comments  upon  the  recent  advances 
in  the  use  of  water  wheels  as  follows: 

"One  notable  advance  in  turbine  construction  has 
been  the  production  of  a  type  of  wheel  especially  de- 
signed for  operating  under  much  higher  heads  of  water 
than  were  formerly  considered  feasible  for  wheels  of 
this  type.  Turbines  are  now  built  for  heads  ranging 
from  loo  to  1,200  feet,  and  quite  a  number  of  wheels 
are  in  operation  under  heads  of  from  100  to  200  feet. 
This  is  an  encroachment  upon  the  field  occupied  almost 
exclusively  by  wheels  variously  known  as  the  'impulse/ 
'impact,'  ' tangential,'  or  'jet'  type,  the  principle  of 
which  is  the  impact  of  a  powerful  jet  of  water  from  a 
small  nozzle  upon  a  series  of  buckets  mounted  upon 
the  periphery  of  a  small  wheel." 

"The  impact  water  wheel,"  Mr.  Sanborn  continues, 
4 'has  come  largely  into  use  during  the  last  ten  years, 
principally  in  the  far  West,  where  higher  heads  of  water 
are  available  than  can  be  found  in  other  parts  of  the 
country.  With  wheels  of  this  type,  exceedingly  simple 

[73] 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

in  construction  and  of  comparatively  small  cost,  a  large 
amount  of  power  is  developed  with  great  economy  under 
the  great  heads  that  are  available.  With  the  tremen- 
dous water  pressure  developed  by  heads  of  1,000  feet 
and  upward,  which  in  many  cases  are  used  for  this 
purpose,  wheels  of  small  diameter  develop  an  extraor- 
dinary amount  of  power.  To  the  original  type  of 
impact  wheel  which  first  led  the  field  have  been  added 
several  styles  embodying  practically  the  same  principle. 
Considerable  study  has  been  given  to  the  designing 
of  buckets  with  a  view  to  securing  free  discharge  and 
the  avoidance  of  any  disturbing  eddies,  and  important 
improvements  have  resulted  from  the  thorough  inves- 
tigation of  the  action  of  the  water  during,  and  subse- 
quent to,  its  impact  on  the  buckets.  The  impact  wheel 
has  been  adapted  to  a  wide  range  of  service  with  great 
variation  as  to  the  conditions  under  which  it  operates, 
wheels  having  been  made  in  California  from  30  inches 
to  30  feet  in  diameter,  and  to  work  under  heads  ranging 
from  35  to  2,100  feet,  and  at  speeds  ranging  from  65 
to  1,100  revolutions  per  minute.  A  number  of  wheels 
of  this  type  have  been  built  with  capacities  of  not  less 
than  1,000  horse-power  each." 

HYDRAULIC  POWER 

A  few  words  should  be  said  about  the  familiar  method 
of  transmitting  power  with  the  aid  of  water,  as  illustrated 
by  the  hydrostatic  press.  This  does  not  indeed  utilize 
the  energy  of  the  water  itself,  but  it  enables  the  worker 
to  transmit  energy  supplied  from  without,  and  to  gain 

[74] 


THE  WORK  OF  AIR  AND  WATER 

an  indefinite  power  to  move  weights  through  a  short 
distance,  with  the  expenditure  of  very  little  working 
energy.  The  principle  on  which  the  hydrostatic  press 
is  based  is  the  one  which  was  familiar  to  the  ancient 
philosophers  under  the  name  of  the  hydrostatic  para- 
dox. It  was  observed  that  if  a  tube  is  connected  with 
a  closed  receptacle,  such  as  a  strong  cask,  and  cask 
and  tube  are  filled  with  water,  the  cask  will  presently 
be  burst  by  the  pressure  of  the  water,  provided  the 
tube  is  raised  to  a  height,  even  though  the  actual  weight 
of  water  in  the  tube  be  comparatively  slight.  A  power- 
ful cask,  for  example,  may  be  burst  by  the  water  poured 
into  a  slender  pipe.  The  result  seems  indeed  paradox- 
ical, and  for  a  long  time  no  explanation  of  it  was  forth- 
coming. It  remained  for  Servinus,  whose  horseless 
wagon  is  elsewhere  noticed,  to  discover  that  the  water 
at  any  given  level  presses  equally  in  all  directions,  and 
that  its  pressure  is  proportionate  to  its  depth,  quite 
regardless  of  its  bulk.  Then,  supposing  the  tube  in 
our  experiment  to  have  a  cross-section  of  one  square 
inch,  a  pressure  equal  to  that  in  the  tube  would  be 
transmitted  to  each  square  inch  of  the  surface  of  the 
cask;  and  the  pressure  might  thus  become  enormous. 
If,  instead  of  a  tube  lifted  to  a  height,  the  same  tube 
is  connected  with  a  force  pump  operated  with  a  lever— 
an  apparatus  similar  to  the  fire-engine  of  Ctesibius — it 
is  obvious  that  precisely  the  same  effect  may  be  pro- 
duced; whatever  pressure  is  developed  in  the  piston 
of  the  force  pump,  similar  pressure  will  be  transferred 
to  a  corresponding  area  in  the  surface  of  the  cask  or 
receptacle  with  which  the  force  pump  connects.  In 

[75] 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

practise  this  principle  is  utilized,  where  great  pressure 
is  desired,  by  making  a  receptacle  with  an  enormous 
piston  connecting  with  the  force  pump  just  described. 

An  indefinite  power  may  thus  be  developed,  the 
apparatus  constituting  virtually  a  gigantic  lever.  But 
the  principle  of  the  equivalence  of  weight  and  distance 
still  holds,  precisely  as  in  an  actual  lever,  and  while  the 
pressure  that  may  be  exerted  with  slight  expenditure 
of  energy  is  enormous,  the  distance  through  which  this 
pressure  acts  is  correspondingly  small.  If,  for  example, 
the  piston  of  the  force  pump  has  an  area  of  one  square 
inch,  while  the  piston  of  the  press  has  an  area  of  several 
square  feet,  the  pressure  exerted  will  be  measured  in  tons, 
but  the  distance  through  which  it  is  exerted  will  be  almost 
infinitesimal.  The  range  of  utility  of  the  hydrostatic 
press  is,  therefore,  limited,  but  within  its  sphere,  it  is 
an  incomparable  transmitter  of  energy. 

Moreover,  it  is  possible  to  reverse  the  action  of  the 
hydraulic  apparatus  so  as  to  gain  motion  at  the  expense 
of  power.  A  familiar  type  of  elevator  is  a  case  in  point. 
The  essential  feature  of  the  hydraulic  elevator  consists 
of  a  ram  attached  to  the  bottom  of  the  elevator  and 
extending  down  into  a  cylinder,  slightly  longer  than  the 
height  to  which  the  elevator  is  to  rise.  The  ram  is 
fitting  into  a  cylinder  with  water-tight  packing,  or  a 
cut  leather  valve.  Water  under  high  pressure  is  ad- 
mitted to  the  cylinder  through  the  valve  at  the  bottom, 
and  the  pressure  thus  supplied  pushes  up  the  ram, 
carrying  the  elevator  with  it,  of  course.  Another  valve 
allows  the  water  to  escape,  so  that  ram  and  elevator 
may  descend,  too  rapid  descent  being  prevented  by 

[76] 


HYDRAULIC  PRESS   AND   HYDRAULIC   CAPSTAN. 

The  upper  figure  shows  Bramah's  original  hydraulic  pump  and  press,  now  pre- 
served in  the  South  Kensington  Museum,  London.  The  machine  was  constructed 
in  1796  by  Joseph  Bramah  to  demonstrate  the  principle  of  his  hydraulic  press. 
The  discrepancy  in  size  between  the  small  lever  worked  by  hand  and  the  enormous 
lever  carrying  a  heavy  weight  gives  a  vivid  impression  of  the  gain  in  power  through 
the  use  of  the  apparatus.  The  lower  tigure  shows  the  hydraulic  capstan  used 
on  many  modern  ships,  in  which  the  same  principle  is  utilized. 


THE  WORK   OF   AIR  AND   WATER 

the  partial  balancing  of  ram  and  elevator  with  weights 
acting  over  pulleys.  The  ram,  to  the  end  of  which 
pressure  is  thus  applied,  need  be  but  a  few  inches  in 
diameter.  Water  pressure  is  secured  by  bringing  water 
from  an  elevation.  Such  an  elevator  acts  slowly,  but 
is  a  very  safe  and  in  many  ways  satisfactory  mechanism. 
Such  elevators  are  still  used  extensively  in  Europe, 
but  have  been  almost  altogether  displaced  in  America 
by  the  electric  elevator. 

The  hydraulic  elevator  just  described  is  virtually  a 
water  engine,  the  ram  acting  as  piston.  A  veritable  en- 
gine, of  small  size,  to  perform  any  species  of  mechanical 
work,  may  be  constructed  on  precisely  the  same  prin- 
ciple, the  piston  in  this  case  acting  in  a  cylinder  similar 
to  that  of  the  ordinary  steam  engine.  Such  an  engine 
operates  slowly  but  with  great  power.  It  has  special 
utility  where  it  is  desirable  to  apply  power  intermit- 
tently, as  in  various  parts  of  a  dockyard,  or  in  handling 
guns  and  ammunition  on  shipboard.  In  the  former 
case  in  particular,  it  is  often  inconvenient  to  use  steam 
power,  as  steam  sent  from  a  central  boiler  condenses 
in  a  way  to  interfere  with  its  operation.  In  such  a  case 
any  number  of  small  water-pressure  engines  may  be 
operated  from  a  single  tank  where  water  is  at  a  high 
elevation,  or  where  the  requisite  pressure  is  secured 
artificially.  In  the  latter  case,  the  water  is  kept  under 
pressure  by  a  large  piston  or  ram  heavily  weighted, 
the  entire  receptacle  being,  of  course,  of  water-tight 
construction  and  adapted  to  withstand  pressure.  The 
pump  that  supplies  the  tank  is  ordinarily  made  to  work 
automatically,  ceasing  operation  as  soon  as  the  ram 

[77] 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

rises  to  the  top  of  the  receptacle,  and  beginning  again 
whenever,  through  use  of  water,  the  ram  begins  to 
descend.  Such  an  apparatus  is  called  an  accumulator. 
Such  water  engines  have  come  into  vogue  only  in  com- 
paratively recent  times,  being  suggested  by  the  steam 
engine.  As  already  pointed  out,  their  utility  is  re- 
stricted, yet  the  total  number  of  them  in  actual  use  to- 
day is  large,  and  their  share  in  the  world's  work  is  not 
altogether  inconsiderable. 


CAPTIVE  MOLECULES:  THE  STORY  OF  THE  STEAM  ENGINE 

WE  come  now  to  that  all-important  trans- 
former of  power,  the  steam  engine.  Every- 
body knows  that  steam  is  a  state  of  water 
in  which,  under  the  influence  of  heat,  the  molecules  have 
broken  away  from  the  mutual  attraction  of  cohesion, 
and  are  flying  about  at  inconceivable  speed,  rebounding 
from  one  another  after  collision,  in  virtue  of  their  elas- 
ticity, exerting  in  the  aggregate  an  enormous  pressure  in 
every  direction.  It  is  this  consideration  of  the  intimate 
character  of  steam  that  justifies  the  title  of  the  present 
chapter;  a  title  that  has  further  utility  as  drawing  a 
contrast  between  the  manner  of  working  with  which  we 
are  now  to  be  concerned,  and  the  various  types  of 
workers  that  we  have  previously  considered. 

In  speaking  of  the  animal  machine  and  of  work  ac- 
complished by  the  air  and  the  water,  we  have  been  con- 
cerned primarily  with  masses  of  matter,  possessing  and 
transmitting  energy.  Of  course  molecules — since  they 
make  up  the  substance  of  all  matter — could  not  be 
altogether  ignored,  but  hi  the  main  we  have  had  to  do 
with  molar  rather  than  with  molecular  motion.  Now, 
however,  we  are  concerned  with  a  mechanism  in  which 
the  molecular  activities  are  directly  concerned  in  per- 
forming work. 

[79] 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

Even  in  the  aggregate  the  molecules  make  up  a  mere 
intangible  gas,  which  requires  to  be  closely  confined 
in  order  that  its  energy  may  be  made  available.  Once 
the  molecules  have  performed  their  work,  they  are  so 
changed  in  their  activities  that  they  sink  back,  as  it 
were,  exhausted,  into  a  relatively  quiescent  state,  which 
enables  their  latent  cohesive  forces  to  reduce  them  again 
to  the  state  of  a  liquid.  In  a  word,  we  are  concerned 
with  the  manifestation  of  energy  which  depends  upon 
molecular  activities  in  a  way  quite  different  from  what 
has  been  the  case  with  any  of  the  previously  considered 
mechanisms.  The  tangible  manifestation  of  energy 
which  we  term  heat  is  not  merely  a  condition  of  action 
and  a  by-product,  as  it  was  in  the  case  of  the  animal 
machine;  it  is  the  essential  factor  upon  which  all  the 
efficiency  of  the  mechanism  depends. 

It  should  perhaps  be  stated  that  this  explanation  of 
the  action  of  the  steam  engine  is  a  comparatively  modern 
scientific  interpretation.  The  earlier  experimenters 
brought  the  steam  engine  to  a  high  state  of  efficiency, 
without  having  any  such  conception  as  this  of  the  nature 
of  steam  itself.  For  practical  purposes  it  suffices  to  note 
that  water  when  heated  takes  the  form  of  steam;  that 
this  steam  has  the  property  of  powerful  and  indefinite 
expansion;  and  thirdly,  that  when  allowed  to  escape 
from  a  state  of  pressure,  sudden  expansion  of  the  steam 
cools  it  sufficiently  to  cause  the  recondensation  of  part 
of  its  substance,  thus  creating  a  vacuum. 

Stated  in  few  words,  the  entire  action  of  the  steam 
depends  upon  these  simple  mechanical  principles.  The 
principles  are  practically  applied  by  permitting  the 

[so] 


CAPTIVE   MOLECULES 

steam  to  enter  the  cylinder  where  it  can  act  on  a  piston, 
to  which  it  gives  the  thrust  that  is  transmitted  to  an 
external  mechanism  by  means  of  a  rod  attached  to  the 
piston.  When  the  piston  has  been  driven  to  the  end  of 
the  desired  thrust,  the  valve  is  opened  automatically, 
permitting  the  steam  to  escape,  thus  producing  a  vac- 
uum, and  insuring  the  return  thrust  of  the  piston,  which 
is  further  facilitated,  ordinarily,  by  the  admission  of 
steam  to  the  other  side  of  the  piston.  Practical  opera- 
tion of  this  mechanism  is  familiar  to  everyone,  though 
the  marvel  of  its  power  and  efficiency  seems  none  the 
less  because  of  its  familiarity. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  this  relatively  simple 
device,  in  its  first  general  application,  marked  one  of 
the  most  important  turning  points  in  the  history  of 
civilization.  To  its  influence,  more  than  to  any  other 
single  cause,  must  be  ascribed  the  revolutionary  change 
that  came  over  the  character  of  practical  life  in  the 
nineteenth  century.  From  prehistoric  times  till  well 
toward  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  there  was 
scarcely  any  important  change  in  carrying  out  the 
world's  work.  And  in  the  few  generations  that  have 
since  elapsed,  the  entire  aspect  of  the  mechanical  world 
has  been  changed,  the  working  efficiency  of  the  individ- 
ual has  been  largely  increased ;  mechanical  tasks  have 
become  easy  which  hitherto  were  scarcely  within  the 
range  of  human  capacity. 

Before  we  go  on  to  the  detailed  study  of  the  machine 
which  has  produced  these  remarkable  results,  it  is  de- 
sirable to  make  inquiry  as  to  the  historical  development 
of  so  important  an  invention. 

VOL.    VI.— 6 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

The  practical  steam  engine  in  its  modern  form  dates, 
as  just  mentioned,  from  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  and  was  perfected  by  James  Watt,  who  is  com- 
monly thought  of  as  being  its  inventor.  In  point  of  fact, 
however,  the  history  of  most  inventions  is  duplicated 
here,  as  on  examination  it  appears  that  various  fore- 
runners of  Watt  had  been  on  the  track  of  the  steam 
engine,  and  some  of  them,  indeed,  had  produced  a 
workable  machine  of  no  small  degree  of  efficiency. 

The  very  earliest  experiments  were  made  away  back 
in  the  Alexandrian  days  in  the  second  century  before 
the  Christian  era,  the  experimenter  being  the  famous 
Hero,  whose  work  in  an  allied  field  was  referred  to  in 
the  preceding  chapter.  Hero  produced — or  at  least 
described  and  so  is  credited  with  producing,  though 
the  actual  inventor  may  have  been  Ctesibius — a  little 
toy  mechanism,  in  which  a  hollow  ball  was  made  to 
revolve  on  an  axis  through  the  agency  of  steam,  which 
escaped  from  two  bent  tubes  placed  on  opposite  sides 
of  the  ball,  their  orifices  pointing  in  opposite  directions. 
The  apparatus  had  no  practical  utility,  but  it  sufficed 
to  establish  the  principle  that  heat,  acting  through  the 
agency  of  steam,  could  be  made  to  do  mechanical  work. 
Had  not  the  age  of  Hero  been  a  time  of  mental  stasis, 
it  is  highly  probable  that  the  principle  he  had  thus 
demonstrated  would  have  been  applied  to  some  more 
practical  mechanism  in  succeeding  generations.  As  it 
was,  however,  nothing  practical  came  of  his  experi- 
ment, and  the  steam  turbine  engine  was  remembered 
only  as  a  scientific  toy. 

No  other  worker  continued  the  experiments,  so  far 


CAPTIVE   MOLECULES 

as  is  known,  until  the  time  of  the  great  Italian,  Leonardo 
da  Vinci,  who,  late  in  the  fifteenth  century,  gave  a  new 
impulse  to  mechanical  invention.  Leonardo  experi- 
mented with  steam,  and  succeeded  in  producing  what 
was  virtually  an  explosion  engine,  by  the  agency  of 
which  a  ball  was  propelled  along  the  earth.  But  this 
experiment  also  failed  to  have  practical  result. 

BEGINNINGS   OF   MODERN   DISCOVERY 

Such  sporadic  experiments  as  these  have  no  sequential 
connection  with  the  story  of  the  evolution  of  the  steam 
engine.  The  experiments  which  led  directly  on  to 
practical  achievements  were  not  begun  until  the 
seventeenth  century.  In  the  very  first  year  of  that 
century,  an  Italian  named  Giovanni  Battista  della 
Porta  published  a  treatise  on  pneumatics,  in  which  the 
idea  of  utilizing  steam  for  the  practical  purpose  of 
raising  water  was  expressly  stated.  The  idea  of  this 
inventor  was  put  into  effect  in  1624  by  a  French  en- 
gineer and  mathematician,  Solomon  de  Caus.  He  in- 
vented two  different  machines,  the  first  of  which  re- 
quired a  spherical  boiler  having  an  internal  tube 
reaching  nearly  to  the  bottom;  a  fire  beneath  the  boiler 
produced  steam  which  would  force  the  water  in  the 
boiler  to  a  height  proportional  to  the  pressure  obtained. 
In  the  other  machine,  steam  is  led  from  the  boiler  into 
the  upper  part  of  a  closed  cistern  containing  water  to  be 
elevated.  To  the  lower  portion  of  the  cistern  a  de- 
livery pipe  was  attached  so  that  water  was  discharged 
under  a  considerable  pressure.  This  arrangement  was 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

precisely  similar  to  the  apparatus  employed  by  Hero  of 
Alexandria  in  various  of  his  fountains,  as  regards  the 
principle  of  expanding  gas  to  propel  water.  An  im- 
portant difference,  however,  consists  in  the  fact  that  the 
scheme  of  della  Porta  and  of  de  Caus  embodied  the 
idea  of  generating  pressure  with  the  aid  of  steam, 
whereas  Hero  had  depended  merely  on  the  expansive 
property  of  air  compressed  by  the  water  itself. 

While  these  mechanisms  contained  the  germ  of  an 
idea  of  vast  importance,  the  mechanisms  themselves 
were  of  trivial  utility.  It  is  not  even  clear  whether 
their  projectors  had  an  idea  of  the  properties  of  the  con- 
densation of  vapor,  upon  which  the  working  of  the 
practical  steam  engine  so  largely  depends.  This  idea, 
however,  was  probably  grasped  about  half  a  century 
later  by  an  Englishman,  Edward  Somerset,  the  cele- 
brated Marquis  of  Worcester,  who  in  1663  described  in 
his  Century  of  Inventions  an  apparatus  for  raising  water 
by  the  expansive  force  of  steam.  His  own  account  of 
his  invention  is  as  follows: 

"An  admirable  and  most  forcible  way  to  drive  up 
water  by  fire;  not  by  drawing  or  sucking  it  upwards, 
for  that  must  be  as  the  philosopher  calleth  it,  intra 
sph&ram  activitatis,  which  is  but  at  such  a  distance. 
But  this  way  hath  no  bounder,  if  the  vessel  be  strong 
enough:  for  I  have  taken  a  piece  of  whole  cannon, 
whereof  the  end  was  burst,  and  filled  it  three-quarters 
full  of  water,  stopping  and  screwing  up  the  broken  end, 
as  also  the  touch-hole;  and  making  a  constant  fire 
under  it,  within  twenty-four  hours  it  burst  and  made  a 
great  crack;  so  that  having  a  way  to  make  my  vessels 

[84] 


CAPTIVE   MOLECULES 

so  that  they  are  strengthened  by  the  force  within  them, 
and  the  one  to  fill  after  the  other,  I  have  seen  the  water 
run  like  a  constant  stream,  forty  feet  high:  one  vessel 
of  water,  rarefied  by  fire,  driveth  up  forty  of  cold  water; 
and  the  man  that  tends  the  work  is  but  to  turn  two 
cocks,  that  one  vessel  of  water  being  consumed,  another 
begins  to  force  and  refill  with  cold  water,  and  so  suc- 
cessively; the  fire  being  tended  and  kept  constant, 
which  the  self-same  person  may  likewise  abundantly 
perform  in  the  interim,  between  the  necessity  of  turn- 
ing the  said  cocks." 

It  is  unfortunate  that  the  Marquis  did  not  give  a  more 
elaborate  description  of  this  remarkable  contrivance. 
The  fact  that  he  treats  it  so  casually  is  sufficient  evidence 
that  he  had  no  conception  of  the  possibilities  of  the 
mechanism;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  his  description 
suffices  to  prove  that  he  had  gained  a  clear  notion  of, 
and  had  experimentally  demonstrated,  the  tremendous 
power  of  expansion  that  resides  in  steam.  No  example 
of  his  steam  pump  has  been  preserved,  and  historians 
of  the  subject  have  been  left  in  doubt  as  to  some  de- 
tails of  its  construction,  and  in  particular  as  to  whether 
it  utilized  the  principle  of  a  vacuum  created  through 
condensation  of  the  steam. 

THOMAS  SAVERY'S  STEAM  PUMP 

This  principle  was  clearly  grasped,  however,  by 
another  Englishman,  Thomas  Savery,  a  Cornish  mine 
captain,  who  in  1698  secured  a  patent  for  a  steam  engine 
to  be  applied  to  the  raising  of  water,  etc.  A  working 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

model  of  this  machine  was  produced  before  the  Royal 
Society  in  1699.  The  transactions  of  the  Society  con- 
tain the  following:  "June  i4th,  1699,  Mr.  Savery  en- 
tertained the  Royal  Society  with  showing  a  small  model 
of  his  engine  for  raising  water  by  help  of  fire,  which  he 
set  to  work  before  them:  the  experiment  succeeded  ac- 
cording to  expectation,  and  to  their  satisfaction." 

The  following  very  clear  description  of  Savery's  en- 
gine is  given  in  the  introduction  to  Beckmann's  History 
of  Inventions  : 

"This  engine,  which  was  used  for  some  time  to  a  con- 
siderable extent  for  raising  water  from  mines,  consisted 
of  a  strong  iron  vessel  shaped  like  an  egg,  with  a  tube 
or  pipe  at  the  bottom,  which  descended  to  the  place 
from  which  the  water  was  to  be  drawn,  and  another 
at  the  top,  which  ascended  to  the  place  to  which  it  was 
to  be  elevated.  This  oval  vessel  was  filled  with  steam 
supplied  from  a  boiler,  by  which  the  atmospheric  air 
was  first  blown  out  of  it.  When  the  air  was  thus  expelled 
and  nothing  but  pure  steam  left  in  the  vessel,  the  com- 
munication with  the  boiler  was  cut  off,  and  cold  water 
poured  on  the  external  surface.  The  steam  within  was 
thus  condensed  and  a  vacuum  produced,  and  the  water 
drawn  up  from  below  in  the  usual  way  by  suction.  The 
oval  vessel  was  thus  filled  with  water;  a  cock  placed  at 
the  bottom  of  the  lower  pipe  was  then  closed,  and  steam 
was  introduced  from  the  boiler  into  the  oval  vessel  above 
the  surface  of  the  water.  This  steam  being  of  high 
pressure,  forced  the  water  up  the  ascending  tube,  from 
the  top  of  which  it  was  discharged,  and  the  oval  vessel 
being  thus  refilled  with  steam,  the  vacuum  was  again 

[86] 


THOMAS      SAVERY      1698 


THOMAS  SAVERY'S  STEAM  ENGINE. 


The  principle  involved  is  that  of  the  expansion  of  steam  exerting  a  propulsive 
force  and  its  subsequent  condensation  to  produce  a  vacuum.  These  are  the  princi- 
ples employed  in  the  modern  steam  engine,  but  the  only  use  to  which  they  were  put 
in  Savery's  engine  was  the  elevation  of  water  by  suction. 


CAPTIVE   MOLECULES 

produced  by  condensation,  and  the  same  process  was 
repeated.  By  using  two  oval  steam  vessels,  which  would 
act  alternately — one  drawing  water  from  below,  while 
the  other  was  forcing  it  upwards,  an  uninterrupted 
discharge  of  water  was  produced.  Owing  to  the  danger 
of  explosion,  from  the  high  pressure  of  the  steam 
which  was  used,  and  from  the  enormous  waste  of  heat 
by  unnecessary  condensation,  these  engines  soon  fell 
into  disuse." 

This  description  makes  it  obvious  that  Savery  had 
the  clearest  conception  of  the  production  of  a  vacuum 
by  the  condensation  of  steam,  and  of  the  utilization 
of  the  suction  thus  established  (which  suction,  as  we 
know,  is  really  due  to  the  pressure  of  outside  air)  to 
accomplish  useful  work.  Savery  also  arranged  this 
apparatus  in  duplicate,  so  that  one  vessel  was  filling  with 
water  while  the  other  was  forcing  water  to  the  delivery 
pipe.  This  is  credited  with  being  the  first  useful  ap- 
paratus for  raising  water  by  the  combustion  of  fuel. 
There  was  a  great  waste  of  steam,  through  imparting 
heat  to  the  water,  but  the  feasibility  of  the  all-important 
principle  of  accomplishing  mechanical  labor  with  the 
aid  of  heat  was  at  last  demonstrated. 

As  yet,  however,  the  experimenters  were  not  on  the 
track  of  the  method  by  which  power  could  be  advan- 
tageously transferred  to  outside  machinery.  An  effort 
in  quite  another  direction  to  accomplish  this  had  been 
made  as  early  as  1629  by  Giovanni  Branca,  an  Italian 
mathematician,  who  had  proposed  to  obtain  rotary 
motion  by  allowing  a  jet  of  steam  to  blow  against  the 
vanes  of  a  fan  wheel,  capable  of  turning  on  an  axis. 

[87] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

In  other  words,  he  endeavored  to  utilize  the  principle  of 
the  windmill,  the  steam  taking  the  place  of  moving  air. 
The  idea  is  of  course  perfectly  feasible,  being  indeed 
virtually  that  which  is  employed  in  the  modern  steam 
turbine;  but  to  put  the  idea  into  practise  requires 
special  detailed  arrangements  of  steam  jet  and  vanes, 
which  it  is  not  strange  the  early  inventor  failed  to  dis- 
cover. His  experiments  appear  not  to  have  been  fol- 
lowed up  by  any  immediate  successor,  and  nothing 
practical  came  of  them,  nor  was  the  principle  which  he 
had  attempted  to  utilize  made  available  until  long  after 
a  form  of  steam  engine  utilizing  another  principle  for 
the  transmission  of  power  had  been  perfected. 

DENIS  PAPIN  INVENTS  THE  PISTON   ENGINE 

The  principle  in  question  was  that  of  causing  expand- 
ing steam  to  press  against  a  piston  working  tightly  in  a 
cylinder,  a  principle,  in  short,  with  which  everyone  is 
familiar  nowadays  through  its  utilization  in  the  ordin- 
ary steam  engine.  The  idea  of  making  use  of  such  a 
piston  appears  to  have  originated  with  a  Frenchman, 
Denis  Papin,  a  scientific  worker,  who,  being  banished 
from  his  own  country,  was  established  as  professor  of 
mathematics  at  the  University  of  Marburg.  He  con- 
ceived the  important  idea  of  transmitting  power  by 
means  of  a  piston  as  early  as  1688,  and  about  two  years 
later  added  the  idea  of  producing  a  vacuum  in  a  cylinder, 
by  cooling  the  cylinder, — the  latter  idea  being,  as  we 
have  just  seen,  the  one  which  Savery  put  into  effect. 

It  will  be  noted  that  Papin' s  invention  antedated  that 

[88] 


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o 


CAPTIVE   MOLECULES 

of  Savery;  to  the  Frenchman,  therefore,  must  be  given 
the  credit  of  hitting  upon  two  important  principles 
which  made  feasible  the  modern  steam  engine.  Papin 
constructed  a  model  consisting  of  a  small  cylinder  in 
which  a  solid  piston  worked.  In  the  cylinder  beneath 
the  piston  was  placed  a  small  quantity  of  water,  which, 
when  the  cylinder  was  heated,  was  turned  into  steam, 
the  elastic  force  of  which  raised  the  piston.  The  cylinder 
was  then  cooled  by  removing  the  fire,  when  the  steam 
condensed,  thus  creating  a  vacuum  in  the  cylinder,  into 
which  the  piston  was  forced  by  the  pressure  of  the 
atmosphere. 

Such  an  apparatus  seems  crude  enough,  yet  it  in- 
corporates the  essential  principles,  and  required  but  the 
use  of  ingenuity  in  elaborating  details  of  the  mechanism, 
to  make  a  really  efficient  steam  engine.  It  would  appear, 
however,  that  Papin  was  chiefly  interested  in  the  theo- 
retical, rather  than  in  the  really  practical  side  of  the 
question,  and  there  is  no  evidence  of  his  having  pro- 
duced a  working  machine  of  practical  power,  until 
after  such  machines  worked  by  steam  had  been  con- 
structed elsewhere. 

THOMAS  NEWCOMEN'S  IMPROVED  ENGINE 

As  has  happened  so  often  in  other  fields,  Englishmen 
were  the  first  to  make  practical  use  of  the  new  ideas. 
In  1705  Thomas  Newcomen,  a  blacksmith  or  ironmon- 
ger, and  John  Cawley,  a  plumber  and  glazier,  patented 
their  atmospheric  engine,  and  five  years  later,  in  the 
year  1710,  namely,  Newcomen  had  on  the  market  an 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

engine  which  is  described  in  the  Report  of  the  De- 
partment of  Science  and  Arts  of  the  South  Kensington 
Museum,  as  "the  first  real  pumping  engine  ever  made." 

The  same  report  describes  the  engine  as  "a  vertical 
steam  cylinder  provided  with  a  piston  connected  at  one 
end  of  the  beam,  having  a  pivot  or  bearing  in  the 
middle  of  its  length,  and  at  the  other  end  of  the  beam 
pump  rods  for  working  the  pump.  The  cylinder  was 
surrounded  by  a  second  cylinder  or  jacket,  open  at  the 
top,  and  cold  water  could  be  supplied  to  this  outer 
cylinder  at  pleasure.  The  single  or  working  cylinder 
could  be  supplied  with  steam  when  desired  from  a 
boiler  below  it.  There  was  a  drain  pipe  from  the  bot- 
tom of  the  working  cylinder,  and  one  from  the  outer 
cylinder.  For  the  working  of  the  engine  steam  was 
admitted  to  the  working  cylinder,  so  as  to  fill  it  and  expel 
all  the  air,  the  piston  then  being  at  the  top,  owing  to  the 
weight  of  the  pump  rods  being  sufficient  to  lift  it;  then 
the  steam  was  shut  off  and  the  drain  cocks  closed  and 
cold  water  admitted  to  the  outer  cylinder,  so  that  the 
steam  in  the  working  cylinder  condensed,  and,  leaving 
a  partial  vacuum  of  pressure  of  the  atmosphere,  forced 
the  piston  down  and  drew  up  the  pump  rods,  thus  mak- 
ing a  stroke  of  the  pump.  Then  the  water  was  drawn 
off  from  the  outer  cylinder  and  steam  admitted  to  the 
working  cylinder  before  allowing  the  piston  to  return 
to  the  top  of  its  stroke,  ready  for  the  next  down  stroke.'* 

It  will  be  observed  that  this  machine  adopts  the 
principle,  with  only  a  change  of  mechanical  details, 
of  the  Papin  engine  just  described.  A  later  improve- 
ment made  by  Newcomen  did  away  with  the  outer 

[90] 


CAPTIVE   MOLECULES 

cylinder  for  condensing  the  steam,  employing  instead 
an  injection  of  cold  water  into  the  working  cylinder 
itself,  thus  enabling  the  engine  to  work  more  quickly. 
It  is  said  that  the  superiority  of  the  internal  condensing 
arrangement  was  accidentally  discovered  through  the  im- 
proved working  of  an  engine  that  chanced  to  have  an 
exceptionally  leaky  piston  or  cylinder.  Many  engines 
were  made  on  this  plan  and  put  into  practical  use. 

Another  important  improvement  was  made  by  a  con- 
nection from  the  beam  to  the  cocks  or  valves,  so  that 
the  engine  worked  automatically,  whereas  in  the  first 
place  it  had  been  necessary  to  have  a  boy  or  man  operate 
the  valves, — a  most  awkward  arrangement,  in  the  light 
of  modern  improvements.  As  the  story  is  told,  the  duty 
of  opening  and  closing  the  regulating  and  condensing 
valves  was  intrusted  to  boys  called  cock  boys.  It  is 
said  that  one  of  these  boys  named  Humphrey  Potter 
"  wishing  to  join  his  comrades  at  play  without  ex- 
posing himself  to  the  consequences  of  suspending  the 
performance  of  the  engine,  contrived,  by  attaching 
strings  of  proper  length  to  the  levers  which  governed 
the  two  cocks,  to  connect  them  with  the  beam,  so  that 
it  should  open  and  close  the  cocks  as  it  moved  up  and 
down  with  the  most  perfect  regularity." 

This  story  has  passed  current  for  almost  two  centuries, 
and  it  has  been  used  to  point  many  a  useful  moral. 
It  seems  almost  a  pity  to  disturb  so  interesting  a  tra- 
dition, yet  it  must  have  occurred  to  more  than  one 
iconoclast  that  the  tale  is  almost  too  good  to  be  true. 
And  somewhat  recently  it  has  been  more  than  hinted 
that  Desaguliers,  with  whom  the  story  originated,  drew 

[91] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

upon  his  imagination  for  it.  A  print  is  in  existence, 
made  so  long  ago  as  1719,  representing  an  engine 
erected  by  Newcomen  at  Dudley  Castle,  Staffordshire, 
in  1712,  in  which  an  automatic  valve  gear  is  clearly 
shown,  proving  that  the  Newcomen  engine  was  worked 
automatically  at  this  early  period.  That  the  admirable 
story  of  the  inventive  youth,  whose  wits  gave  him 
leisure  for  play,  may  not  be  altogether  discredited, 
however,  it  should  be  added  that  unquestionably  some 
of  the  early  engines  had  a  hand-moved  gear,  and  that  at 
least  one  such  was  still  working  in  England  after  the 
middle  of  the  nineteenth  century.  It  seems  probable, 
then,  that  the  very  first  engines  were  without  the  auto- 
matic valve  gear,  and  there  is  no  inherent  reason  why 
a  quick-witted  youth  may  not  have  been  the  first  to 
discover  and  remedy  the  defect. 

According  to  the  Report  of  the  Department  of  Science 
and  Arts  of  the  South  Kensington  Museum:  "The 
adoption  of  Newcomen's  engine  was  rapid,  for,  commen- 
cing in  1711  with  the  engine  at  Wolverhampton,  of 
twenty-three  inch  diameter  and  six  foot  stroke,  they  were 
in  common  use  in  English  collieries  in  1725;  and  Smea- 
ton  found  in  1767  that,  in  the  neighborhood  of  New- 
castle alone  there  were  fifty-seven  at  work,  ranging  in 
size  from  twenty-eight  inch  to  seventy-five  inch  cylinder 
diameter,  and  giving  collectively  about  twelve  hundred 
horse-power.  As  Newcomen  obtained  an  evaporation 
of  nearly  eight  pounds  of  water  per  pound  of  coal,  the 
increase  of  boiler  efficiency  since  his  time  has  neces- 
sarily been  but  slight,  although  in  other  requisites  of 
the  steam  generator  great  improvements  are  noticeable." 

[92] 


A    MODEL   OF   THE   XEWCOMEN    EXGIXE. 


This  engine  has  particular  interest  not  only  because  it  was  a  practical  pumping 
t-ngine,  but  also  because  it  was  while  repairing  an  engine  of  this  type  that  Watt 
was  led  to  the  experiments  that  resulted  in  his  epoch-making  discovery. 


CAPTIVE    MOLECULES 

THE  COMING  OF  JAMES  WATT 

The  Newcomen  engine  had  low  working  efficiency  as 
compared  with  the  modern  engine;  nevertheless,  some 
of  these  engines  are  still  used  in  a  few  collieries  where 
waste  coal  is  available,  the  pressure  enabling  the  steam 
to  be  generated  in  boilers  unsafe  for  other  purposes. 
The  great  importance  of  the  Newcomen  engine,  how- 
ever, is  historical ;  for  it  was  while  engaged  in  repairing 
a  model  of  one  of  these  engines  that  James  Watt  was 
led  to  invent  his  plan  of  condensing  the  steam,  not  in  the 
working  cylinder  itself,  but  in  a  separate  vessel,— 
the  principle  upon  which  such  vast  improvements  in  the 
steam  engine  were  to  depend. 

It  is  impossible  to  overestimate  the  importance  of  the 
work  which  Watt  accomplished  hi  developing  the  steam 
engine.  Fully  to  appreciate  it,  we  must  understand 
that  up  to  this  time  the  steam  engine  had  a  very  limited 
sphere  of  usefulness.  The  Newcomen  engine  repre- 
sented the  most  developed  form,  as  we  have  seen;  and 
this,  like  the  others  that  it  had  so  largely  superseded, 
was  employed  solely  for  the  pumping  of  water.  In 
the  main,  its  use  was  confined  to  mines,  which  were 
often  rendered  unworkable  because  of  flooding.  We 
have  already  seen  that  a  considerable  number  of  en- 
gines were  in  use,  yet  their  power  hi  the  aggregate 
added  but  a  trifle  to  man's  working  efficiency,  and  the 
work  that  they  did  accomplish  was  done  is  a  most 
uneconomical  manner.  Indeed  the  amount  of  fuel  re- 
quired was  so  great  as  to  prohibit  their  use  in  many 
mines,  which  would  have  been  valuable  could  a  cheaper 

[93] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

means  have  been  found  of  freeing  them  from  water. 
Watt's  inventions,  as  we  shall  see,  accomplished  this  end, 
as  well  as  various  others  that  were  not  anticipated. 

It  was  through  consideration  of  the  wasteful  manner  of 
action  of  the  steam  engine  that  Watt  was  led  to  give 
attention  to  the  subject.  The  great  inventor  was  a 
young  man  at  the  University  of  Glasgow.  He  had  pre- 
viously served  an  apprenticeship  of  one  year  with  a 
maker  of  philosophical  instruments  in  London,  but  ill 
health  had  prevented  him  from  finishing  his  appren- 
ticeship, and  he  had  therefore  been  prohibited  from 
practising  his  would-be  profession  in  Glasgow.  Finally, 
however,  he  had  been  permitted  to  work  under  the 
auspices  of  the  University;  and  in  due  course,  as  a  part 
of  his  official  duties,  he  was  engaged  in  repairing  a 
model  of  the  Newcomen  engine.  This  incident  is 
usually  mentioned  as  having  determined  the  line  of 
Watt's  future  activity. 

It  should  be  recalled,  however,  that  Watt  had  become 
a  personal  friend  of  the  celebrated  Professor  Black,  the 
discoverer  of  latent  heat,  and  the  foremost  authority 
in  the  world,  in  this  period,  on  the  study  of  pneumatics. 
Just  what  share  Black  had  in  developing  Watt's  idea, 
or  in  directing  his  studies  toward  the  expansive  proper- 
ties of  steam,  it  would  perhaps  be  difficult  to  say.  It  is 
known,  however,  that  the  subject  was  often  under  dis- 
cussion ;  and  the  interest  evinced  in  it  by  Black  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  he  subsequently  wrote  a  history  of  Watt's 
inventions. 

It  is  never  possible,  perhaps,  for  even  the  inventor 
himself  to  re-live  the  history  of  the  growth  of  an  idea  in 

[94] 


CAPTIVE   MOLECULES 

his  own  mind.  Much  less  is  it  possible  for  him  to  say 
precisely  what  share  of  his  progress  has  been  due  to 
chance  suggestions  of  others.  But  it  is  interesting,  at 
least,  to  recall  this  association  of  Watt  with  the  greatest 
experimenter  of  his  age  in  a  closely  allied  field.  Ques- 
tions of  suggestion  aside,  it  illustrates  the  technical 
quality  of  Watt's  mind,  making  it  obvious  that  he  was 
no  mere  ingenious  mechanic,  who  stumbled  upon  his 
invention.  He  was,  in  point  of  fact,  a  carefully  trained 
scientific  experimenter,  fully  equipped  with  all  the 
special  knowledge  of  his  time  in  its  application  to  the 
particular  branch  of  pneumatics  to  which  he  gave 
attention. 

The  first  and  most  obvious  defect  in  the  Newcomen 
engine  was,  as  Watt  discovered,  that  the  alternating 
cooling  and  heating  of  the  cylinder  resulted  in  an  un- 
avoidable waste  of  energy.  The  apparatus  worked,  it 
will  be  recalled,  by  the  introduction  of  steam  into  a 
vertical  cylinder  beneath  the  piston,  the  cylinder  being 
open  above  the  piston  to  admit  the  air.  The  piston 
rod  connected  with  a  beam  suspended  in  the  middle, 
which  operated  the  pump,  and  which  was  weighted  at 
one  end  in  order  to  facilitate  the  raising  of  the  piston. 
The  steam,  introduced  under  low  pressure,  scarcely 
more  than  counteracted  the  pressure  of  the  air,  the 
raising  of  the  piston  being  largely  accomplished  by  the 
weight  in  question. 

Of  course  the  introduction  of  the  steam  heated  the 
cylinder.  In  order  to  condense  the  steam  and  produce 
a  vacuum,  water  was  injected,  the  cylinder  being  there- 
by cooled.  A  vacuum  being  thus  produced  beneath 

[95] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

the  cylinder,  the  pressure  of  the  air  from  above  thrust 
the  cylinder  down,  this  being  the  actual  working  agent. 
It  was  for  this  reason  that  the  Newcomen  engine  was 
called,  with  much  propriety,  a  pneumatic  engine.  The 
action  of  the  engine  was  very  slow,  and  it  was  necessary 
to  employ  a  very  large  piston  in  order  to  gain  a  consider- 
able power. 

The  fipst  idea  that  occurred  to  Watt  in  connection 
with  the  probable  improvement  of  this  mechanism  did 
not  look  to  the  alteration  of  any  of  the  general  features 
of  the  structure,  as  regards  size  or  arrangement  of  cylin- 
der, piston,  or  beam,  or  the  essential  principle  upon 
which  the  engine  worked.  His  entire  attention  was  fixed 
on  the  discovery  of  a  method  by  which  the  loss  of  heat 
through  periodical  cooling  of  the  cylinder  could  be 
avoided.  We  are  told  that  he  contemplated  the  subject 
long,  and  experimented  much,  before  he  reached  a  satis- 
factory solution.  Naturally  enough  his  attention  was 
first  directed  toward  the  cylinder  itself.  He  queried 
whether  the  cylinder  might  not  be  made  of  wood, 
which,  through  its  poor  conduction  of  heat,  might  better 
equalize  the  temperature.  Experiments  in  this  direc- 
tion, however,  produced  no  satisfactory  result. 

Then  at  last  an  inspiration  came  to  him.  Why  not 
connect  the  cylinder  with  another  receptacle,  in  which 
the  condensation  of  the  steam  could  be  effected  ?  The 
idea  was  a  brilliant  one,  but  neither  its  originator  nor 
any  other  man  of  the  period  could  possibly  have  realized 
its  vast  and  all-comprehending  importance.  For  in 
that  idea  was  contained  the  germ  of  all  the  future  of 
steam  as  a  motive  power.  Indeed,  it  scarcely  suffices 

[96] 


WATTS    EARLIEST   TYPE   O7    PUMPING    ENGIXE. 

The  lower  figure  shows  the  ruins  of  Watt's  famous  engine  "Old  Bess." 
The  upper  figure  shows  a  reconstructed  model  of  the  "Old  Bess"  engine.  It 
will  be  noted  that  the  walking  beam  is  precisely  of  the  Ncwcomen  type.  In 
I.K  t.  the  entire  engine  is  obviously  only  a  modification  of  the  NYwromen 
engine.  It  had,  however,  rertuin  highly  important  improvements,  as  de- 
-i  ribed  in  the  text. 


CAPTIVE    MOLEC  I  LES 

to  speak  of  it  as  the  germ  merely;  the  thing  itself  was 
there,  requiring  only  the  elaboration  of  details  to  bring 
it  to  perfection. 

Watt  immediately  set  to  work  to  put  his  brilliant 
conception  of  the  separate  condenser  to  the  test  of 
experiment.  He  connected  the  cylinder  of  a  Newcomen 
engine  with  a  receptacle  into  which  the  steam  could  be 
discharged  after  doing  its  work  on  the  piston.  The 
receptacle  was  kept  constantly  cooled  by  a  jet  of  water, 
this  water  and  the  water  of  condensation,  together  with 
any  air  or  uncondensed  steam  that  might  remain  in  the 
receptacle,  being  constantly  removed  with  the  aid  of  an 
air  pump.  The  apparatus  at  once  demonstrated  its 
practical  efficiency, — and  the  modern  steam  engine  had 
come  into  existence. 

It  was  in  the  year  1765,  when  Watt  was  twenty-nine 
years  old,  that  he  made  his  first  revolutionary  experi- 
ment, but  his  first  patents  were  not  taken  out  until 
1 7 69,  by  which  time  his  engine  had  attained  a  relatively 
high  degree  of  perfection.  In  furthering  his  idea  of 
keeping  the  cylinder  at  an  even  temperature,  he  had 
provided  a  covering  for  it,  which  might  consist  of  wood 
or  other  poorly  conducting  material,  or  a  so-called 
jacket  of  steam — that  is  to  say,  a  portion  of  steam  ad- 
mitted into  the  closed  chamber  surrounding  the  cylinder. 
Moreover,  the  cylinder  had  been  closed  at  the  top,  and 
a  portion  of  steam  admitted  above  the  piston,  to  take 
the  place  of  the  atmosphere  in  producing  the  down 
stroke.  This  steam  above  the  piston,  it  should  be  ex- 
plained, did  not  connect  with  the  condensing  receptacle, 
so  the  engine  was  still  single-acting;  that  is  to  say  it 

VOL.!*..-;  [97] 


THE   CONQUEST   OF  NATURE 

performed  work  only  during  one  stroke  of  the  piston. 
A  description  of  the  mechanism  at  this  stage  of  its 
development  may  best  be  given  in  the  words  of  the  in- 
ventor himself,  as  contained  in  his  specifications  in  the 
application  for  patent  on  his  improvements  in  1769. 

"My  method  of  lessening  the  consumption  of  steam, 
and  consequently  fuel,  in  fire-engines,  consists  of  the 
following  principles: 

"First,  That  vessel  in  which  the  powers  of  steam 
are  to  be  employed  to  work  the  engine,  which  is  called  the 
cylinder  in  common  fire-engines,  and  which  I  call  the 
steam  vessel,  must,  during  the  whole  time  the  engine  is 
at  work,  be  kept  as  hot  as  the  steam  that  enters  it; 
first  by  enclosing  it  in  a  case  of  wood,  or  any  other 
materials  that  transmit  heat  slowly;  secondly,  by 
surrounding  it  with  steam  or  other  heated  bodies;  and, 
thirdly,  by  suffering  neither  water  nor  any  other  sub- 
stance colder  than  the  steam  to  enter  or  touch  it  during 
that  time. 

"Secondly,  In  engines  that  are  to  be  worked  wholly 
or  partially  by  condensation  of  steam,  the  steam  is  to  be 
condensed  in  vessels  distinct  from  the  steam  vessels  or 
cylinders,  although  occasionally  communicating  with 
them;  these  vessels  I  call  condensers;  and,  whilst  the 
engines  are  working,  these  condensers  ought  at  least 
to  be  kept  as  cold  as  the  air  in  the  neighborhood 
of  the  engines,  by  application  of  water  or  other  cold 
bodies. 

"Thirdly,  Whatever  air  or  other  elastic  vapor  is  not 
condensed  by  the  cold  of  the  condenser,  and  may  impede 
the  working  of  the  engine,  is  to  be  drawn  out  of  the 

[98] 


CAPTIVE   MOLECULES 

steam  vessels  or  condensers  by  means  of  pumps,  wrought 
by  the  engines  themselves,  or  otherwise. 

"Fourthly,  I  intend  in  many  cases  to  employ  the  ex- 
pansive force  of  steam  to  press  on  the  pistons,  or  what- 
ever may  be  used  instead  of  them,  in  the  same  manner 
in  which  the  pressure  of  the  atmosphere  is  now  em- 
ployed in  common  fire-engines.  In  cases  where  cold 
water  can  not  be  had  in  plenty,  the  engines  may  be 
wrought  by  this  force  of  steam  only,  by  discharging  the 
steam  into  the  air  after  it  has  done  its  office. 

"Sixthly,  I  intend  in  some  cases  to  apply  a  degree  of 
cold  not  capable  of  reducing  the  steam  to  water,  but 
of  contracting  it  considerably,  so  that  the  engines  shall 
be  worked  by  the  alternate  expansion  and  contraction 
of  the  steam. 

"Lastly,  Instead  of  using  water  to  render  the  pistons 
and  other  parts  of  the  engine  air-  and  steam-tight,  I  em- 
ploy oils,  wax,  resinous  bodies,  fat  of  animals,  quick- 
silver and  other  metals  in  their  fluid  state." 

ROTARY   MOTION 

It  must  be  understood  that  Watt's  engine  was  at 
first  used  exclusively  as  an  apparatus  for  pumping. 
For  some  time  there  was  no  practical  attempt  to  apply 
the  mechanism  to  any  other  purpose.  That  it  might 
be  so  applied,  however,  was  soon  manifest,  in  considera- 
tion of  the  relative  speed  with  which  the  piston  now 
acted.  It  was  not  until  1781,  however,  that  Watt's 
second  patent  was  taken  out,  in  which  devices  are  de- 
scribed calculated  to  convert  the  reciprocating  motion 

[99] 


THE   CONQUEST   OF   NATURE 

of  the  piston  into  motion  of  rotation,  in  order  that  the 
engine  might  drive  ordinary  machinery. 

It  seems  to  be  conceded  that  Watt  was  himself  the 
originator  of  the  idea  of  making  the  application  through 
the  medium  of  a  crank  and  fly-wheel  such  as  are  now 
universally  employed.  But  the  year  before  Watt  took 
out  his  second  patent,  another  inventor  named  James 
Picard  had  patented  this  device  of  crank  and  connecting 
rod,  having,  it  is  alleged,  obtained  the  idea  from  a 
workman  in  Watt's  employ.  Whatever  be  the  truth 
as  to  this  point,  Picard's  patent  made  it  necessary  for 
Watt  to  find  some  alternative  device,  and  after  experi- 
menting, he  hit  upon  the  so-called  sun  and  planet  gear- 
ing, and  henceforth  this  was  used  on  his  rotary  engines 
until  the  time  for  the  expiration  of  Picard's  patent, 
after  which  the  simpler  and  more  satisfactory  crank 
and  fly-wheel  were  adopted. 

In  the  meantime,  Watt  had  associated  himself  with  a 
business  partner  named  Boulton,  under  the  firm  name 
of  Boulton  and  Watt.  In  1776  a  special  act  of  legisla- 
tion extending  the  term  of  Watt's  original  patent  for  a 
period  of  twenty-five  years  had  been  secured.  All  in- 
fringements were  vigorously  prosecuted,  and  the  in- 
ventor, it  is  gratifying  to  reflect,  shared  fully  in  the 
monetary  proceeds  that  accrued  from  his  invention. 

Notwithstanding  the  early  recognition  of  the  pos- 
sibility of  securing  rotary  motion  with  Watt's  per- 
fected Newcomen  engine,  it  was  long  before  the  full 
possibilities  of  the  application  of  this  principle  were 
realized,  even  by  the  most  practical  of  machinists. 
Watt  himself  apparently  appreciated  the  possibilities 

[ioo  ] 


WATT'S  ROTATIVE  ENGINE. 


The  lower  figure  shows  the  earliest  type  of  mechanism  through  which  Watt 
applied  his  engine  to  other  uses  than  that  of  pumping.  The  so-called  sun-and-planet 
gearing,  through  which  rotary  motion  was  attained,  is  seen  at  the  lower  right-hand 
corner  of  the  figure.  The  upper  figure  shows  a  later  and  much  improved  type  of 
the  Watt  engine,  in  which  the  sun-and-planet  gearing  has  been  supplanted  by  a 
simple  crank. 


CAPTIVE   MOLECULES 

no  more  fully  than  the  others,  as  the  use  of  his  famous 
engines  "Beelzebub"  and  "Old  Bess"  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  Boulton  and  Watt  amply  testifies.  It  ap- 
pears that  Boulton  had  been  an  extensive  manufacturer 
of  ornamental  metal  articles.  To  drive  his  machinery 
at  Soho  he  employed  two  large  water  wheels,  twenty- 
four  feet  in  diameter  and  six  feet  wide.  These  sufficed 
for  his  purpose  under  ordinary  conditions,  but  in  dry 
weather  from  six  to  ten  horses  were  required  to  aid  in 
driving  the  machinery.  When  Watt's  perfected  engine 
was  available,  however,  this  was  utilized  to  pump 
water  from  the  tail  race  back  to  the  head  race,  that  it 
might  be  used  over  and  over.  "Old  Bess"  had  a  cylin- 
der thirty-three  inches  in  diameter  with  seven-foot 
stroke,  operating  a  pump  twenty-four  inches  in  diameter ; 
it  therefore  had  remarkable  efficiency  as  a  pumping 
apparatus.  But  of  course  it  utilized,  at  best,  only  a 
portion  of  the  working  energy  contained  in  the  steam; 
and  the  water  wheels  in  turn  could  utilize  not  more  than 
fifty  per  cent,  of  the  store  of  energy  which  the  pump 
transferred  to  the  water  in  raising  it.  Therefore,  such 
use  of  the  steam  engine  involved  a  most  wasteful  ex- 
penditure of  energy. 

It  was  long,  however,  before  the  practical  machinists 
could  be  made  to  believe  that  the  securing  of  direct 
rotary  power  from  the  piston  could  be  satisfactorily 
accomplished.  It  was  only  after  the  introduction  of 
higher  speed  and  heavier  fly-wheels,  together  with  im- 
proved governors,  that  the  speed  of  rotation  was  so 
equalized  as  to  meet  satisfactorily  the  requirements  of 
the  practical  engineer,  and  ultimately  to  displace  the 

[10!] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

wasteful  method  of  securing  rotary  motion  indirectly 
through  the  aid  of  pump  and  water  wheel.  It  may  be 
added,  that  the  centrifugal  governor,  with  which 
modern  engines  are  provided  to  regulate  their  speed, 
was  the  invention  of  Watt  himself. 


FINAL    IMPROVEMENTS    AND    MISSED    OPPORTUNITIES 

In  the  year  1782  Watt  took  out  patents  which  con- 
tained specifications  for  the  two  additional  improve- 
ments that  constituted  his  final  contribution  to  the  pro- 
duction of  the  steam  engine.  The  first  of  these  provided 
for  the  connection  of  the  cylinder  chamber  on  each  side 
of  the  piston  with  the  condenser,  so  that  the  engine  be- 
came double  acting.  The  second  introduced  the  very 
important  principle, — from  the  standpoint  of  economy 
in  the  use  of  steam — of  shutting  off  the  supply  of  steam 
from  the  cylinder  while  the  piston  has  only  partially 
traversed  its  thrust,  and  allowing  the  remainder  of  the 
thrust  to  be  accomplished  through  the  expansion  of  the 
steam.  The  application  of  the  first  of  these  principles 
obviously  adds  greatly  to  the  efficiency  of  the  engine, 
and  in  practise  it  was  found  that  the  application  of  the 
second  principle  produces  a  very  great  saving  in  steam, 
and  thus  adds  materially  to  the  economical  working  of 
the  engine. 

All  of  Watt's  engines  continued  to  make  use  of  the 
walking  beam  attached  to  the  piston  for  the  trans- 
mission of  power;  and  engineers  were  very  slow  indeed 
to  recognize  the  fact  that  in  many — in  fact  in  most — 
cases  this  contrivance  may  advantageously  be  done  away 

[102] 


CAPTIVE   MOLECULES 

with.  The  recognition  of  this  fact  constitutes  one  of 
the  three  really  important  advances  that  have  been 
made  in  the  steam  engine  since  the  time  of  Watt.  The 
other  two  advances  consist  of  the  utilization  of  steam 
under  high  pressure,  and  of  the  introduction  of  the 
principle  of  the  compound  engine. 

Neither  of  these  ideas  was  unknown  to  Watt,  since 
the  utilization  of  steam  under  high  pressure  was  ad- 
vocated by  his  contemporary,  Trevithick,  while  the 
compound  engine  was  invented  by  another  contempo- 
rary named  Hornblower.  Perhaps  the  very  fact  that 
these  rival  inventors  put  forward  the  ideas  in  question 
may  have  influenced  Watt  to  antagonize  them;  in 
particular  since  his  firm  came  into  legal  conflict  with 
each  of  the  other  inventors.  At  any  rate,  WTatt  con- 
tinued to  the  end  of  his  life  to  be  an  ardent  advocate  of 
low  pressure  for  the  steam  engine,  and  his  firm  even 
attempted  to  have  laws  passed  making  it  illegal — on  the 
ground  of  danger  to  human  life — to  utilize  high-pressure 
steam,  such  as  employed  by  Trevithick. 

Possibly  the  conservatism  of  increasing  age  may  also 
have  had  its  share  in  rendering  Watt  antagonistic  to  the 
new  ideas;  for  he  was  similarly  antagonistic  to  the  idea 
of  applying  steam  to  the  purposes  of  locomotion.  Trev- 
ithick, among  others,  had,  as  we  shall  see  in  due  course, 
made  such  application  with  astonishing  success,  pro- 
ducing a  steam  automobile  which  traversed  the  highway 
successfully.  In  his  earlier  years  Watt  had  conceived 
the  same  idea,  and  had  openly  expressed  his  opinion 
that  the  steam  engine  might  be  used  for  this  purpose. 
But  late  in  life  he  was  so  antipathetic  to  the  idea  that 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

he  is  said  to  have  put  a  clause  in  the  lease  of  his  house, 
providing  that  no  steam  carriage  should  under  any 
pretext  be  allowed  to  approach  it. 

These  incidents  have  importance  as  showing — as  we 
shall  see  illustrated  again  and  again  in  other  fields — 
the  disastrous  influence  in  retarding  progress  that  may 
be  exercised  by  even  the  greatest  of  scientific  discoverers, 
when  authority  well  earned  in  earlier  years  is  exercised 
in  an  unfortunate  direction  later  in  life.  But  such  in- 
cidents as  these  are  inconsequential  in  determining  the 
position  among  the  world's  workers  of  the  man  who 
was  almost  solely  responsible  for  the  transformation  of 
the  steam  engine  from  an  expensive  and  relatively 
ineffective  pumping  apparatus,  to  the  great  central 
power  that  has  ever  since  moved  the  major  part  of  the 
world's  machinery. 

THE   SUPREME    IMPORTANCE    OF    WATT 

It  is  speaking  well  within  bounds  to  say  that  no  other 
invention  within  historical  times  has  had  so  important 
an  influence  upon  the  production  of  property — which, 
as  we  have  seen,  is  the  gauge  of  the  world's  work — as 
this  invention  of  the  steam  engine.  We  have  followed  the 
history  of  that  invention  in  some  detail,  because  of  its 
supreme  importance.  To  the  reader  who  was  not 
previously  familiar  with  that  history,  it  may  seem 
surprising  that  after  a  lapse  of  a  little  over  a  century 
one  name  and  one  alone  should  be  popularly  remem- 
bered in  connection  with  the  invention;  whereas  in 
point  of  fact  various  workers  had  a  share  in  the  achieve- 

[104] 


CAPTIVE   MOLECULES 

ment,  and  the  man  whose  name  is  remembered  was 
among  the  last  to  enter  the  field.  We  have  seen  that 
the  steam  engine  existed  as  a  practical  working  machine 
several  decades  before  Watt  made  his  first  invention; 
and  that  what  Watt  really  accomplished  was  merely  the 
perfecting  of  an  apparatus  which  already  had  attained 
a  considerable  measure  of  efficiency. 

There  would  seem,  then,  to  be  a  certain  lack  of 
justice  in  ascribing  supreme  importance  to  Watt  in 
connection  with  the  steam  engine.  Yet  this  measure  of 
injustice  we  shall  find,  as  we  examine  the  history  of 
various  inventions,  to  be  meted  always  by  posterity  in 
determining  the  status  of  the  men  whom  it  is  pleased 
to  honor.  One  practical  rule,  and  one  only,  has  always 
determined  to  whom  the  chief  share  of  glory  shall  be 
ascribed  in  connection  with  any  useful  invention. 

The  question  is  never  asked  as  to  who  was  the 
originator  of  the  idea,  or  who  made  the  first  tentative 
efforts  towards  its  utilization, — or,  if  asked  by  the 
historical  searcher,  it  is  ignored  by  the  generality  of 
mankind. 

So  far  as  the  public  verdict,  which  in  the  last  resort  de- 
termines fame,  is  concerned,  the  one  question  is,  Who 
perfected  the  apparatus  so  that  it  came  to  have  general 
practical  utility?  It  may  be,  and  indeed  it  usually  is 
the  case,  that  the  man  who  first  accomplished  the  final 
elaboration  of  the  idea,  made  but  a  comparatively  slight 
advance  upon  his  predecessors;  the  early  workers 
produced  a  machine  that  was  almost  a  success;  only 
some  little  flaw  remained  in  their  plans.  Then  came 
the  perfecter,  who  hit  upon  a  device  that  would  correct 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

this  last  defect, — and  at  last  the  mechanism,  which 
hitherto  had  been  only  a  curiosity,  became  a  practical 
working  machine. 

In  the  case  of  the  steam  engine,  it  might  be  said  that 
even  a  smaller  feat  than  this  remained  to  be  accom- 
plished when  Watt  came  upon  the  scene;  since  the 
Newcomen  engine  was  actually  a  practical  working 
apparatus.  But  the  all-essential  thing  to  remember 
is  that  this  Newcomen  engine  was  used  for  a  single 
purpose.  It  supplied  power  for  pumping  water,  and  for 
nothing  else.  Neither  did  it  have  possibilities  much 
beyond  this,  until  the  all-essential  modification  was 
suggested  by  Watt,  of  exhausting  its  steam  into  ex- 
terior space. 

This  modification  is  in  one  sense  a  mere  detail,  yet 
it  illustrates  once  more  the  force  of  Michelangelo's 
famous  declaration  that  trifles  make  perfect;  for  when 
once  it  was  tested,  the  whole  practical  character  of  the 
steam  engine  was  changed.  From  a  wasteful  con- 
sumer of  fuel,  capable  of  running  a  pump  at  great  ex- 
pense, it  became  at  once  a  relatively  economical  user  of 
energy,  capable  of  performing  almost  any  manner  of 
work. 

Needless  to  say,  its  possibilities  in  this  direction  were 
not  immediately  realized,  in  theory  or  in  practise;  yet 
the  conquest  that  it  made  of  almost  the  entire  field  of 
labor  resulted  in  the  most  rapid  transformation  of  in- 
dustrial conditions  that  the  world  has  ever  experienced. 
After  all,  then,  there  is  but  little  injustice  in  that  public 
verdict  which  remembers  James  Watt  as  the  inventor, 
rather  than  as  the  mere  perfecter,  of  the  steam  engine. 

[106] 


CAPTIVE  MOLECULES 

THE  PERSONALITY  OF  JAMES  WATT 

The  man  who  occupies  this  all-important  position  in 
the  industrial  world  demands  a  few  more  words  as  to 
his  personality.  His  work  we  have  sufficiently  con- 
sidered, but  before  we  pass  on  to  the  work  of  his  suc- 
cessors, it  will  be  worth  our  while  to  learn  something 
more  of  the  estimate  placed  upon  the  man  himself.  Let 
us  quote,  then,  from  some  records  written  by  men  who 
were  of  the  same  generation. 

"Independently  of  his  great  attainments  in  mechanics, 
Mr.  Watt  was  an  extraordinary  and  in  many  respects  a 
wonderful  man.  Perhaps  no  individual  in  his  age 
possessed  so  much,  or  remembered  what  he  had  read 
so  accurately  and  well.  He  had  infinite  quickness  of  ap- 
prehension, a  prodigious  memory,  and  a  certain  rec- 
tifying and  methodizing  power  of  understanding  which 
extracted  something  precious  out  of  all  that  was  pre- 
sented to  it.  His  stores  of  miscellaneous  knowledge 
were  immense,  and  yet  less  astonishing  than  the  com- 
mand he  had  at  all  times  over  them.  It  seemed  as  if 
every  subject  that  was  casually  started  in  conversation 
had  been  that  which  he  had  been  last  occupied  in  study- 
ing and  exhausting;  such  was  the  copiousness,  the  pre- 
cision, and  the  admirable  clearness  of  the  information 
which  he  poured  out  upon  it  without  effort  or  hesitation. 
Nor  was  this  promptitude  and  compass  of  knowledge 
confined,  in  any  degree,  to  the  studies  connected  with 
his  ordinary  pursuits. 

"That  he  should  have  been  minutely  and  extensively 
skilled  in  chemistry,  and  the  arts,  and  in  most  of  the 


THE   CONQUEST   OF   NATURE 

branches  of  physical  science,  might,  perhaps,  have 
been  conjectured',  but  it  could  not  have  been  inferred 
from  his  usual  occupations,  and  probably  is  not  gen- 
erally known,  that  he  was  curiously  learned  in  many 
branches  of  antiquity,  metaphysics,  medicine,  and 
etymology,  and  perfectly  at  home  in  all  the  details  of 
architecture,  music,  and  law.  He  was  well  acquainted, 
too,  with  most  of  the  modern  languages,  and  familiar 
with  their  most  recent  literature.  Nor  was  it  at  all  ex- 
traordinary to  hear  the  great  mechanician  and  engineer 
detailing  and  expounding,  for  hours  together,  the  meta- 
physical theories  of  the  German  logicians,  or  criticizing 
the  measures  or  the  matter  of  the  German  poetry. 

"It  is  needless  to  say,  that  with  those  vast  resources, 
his  conversation  was  at  all  times  rich  and  instructive  in 
no  ordinary  degree.  But  it  was,  if  possible,  still  more 
pleasing  than  wise,  and  had  all  the  charms  of  familiarity, 
with  all  the  substantial  treasures  of  knowledge.  No 
man  could  be  more  social  in  his  spirit,  less  assuming 
or  fastidious  in  his  manners,  or  more  kind  and  indulgent 
towards  all  who  approached  him.  His  talk,  too,  though 
overflowing  with  information,  had  no  resemblance  to 
lecturing,  or  solemn  discoursing;  but,  on  the  contrary, 
was  full  of  colloquial  spirit  and  pleasantry.  He  had  a 
certain  quiet  and  grave  humor,  which  ran  through 
most  of  his  conversation,  and  a  vein  of  temperate 
jocularity,  which  gave  infinite  zest  and  effect  to  the  con- 
densed and  inexhaustible  information  which  formed 
its  main  staple  and  characteristic.  There  was  a  little 
air  of  affected  testiness,  and  a  tone  of  pretended  rebuke 
and  contradiction,  which  he  used  towards  his  younger 

[108] 


JAMES    WATT. 


CAPTIVE   MOLECULES 

friends,  that  was  always  felt  by  them  as  an  endearing 
mark  of  his  kindness  and  familiarity,  and  prized  ac- 
cordingly, far  beyond  all  the  solemn  compliments  that 
proceeded  from  the  lips  of  authority.  His  voice  was 
deep  and  powerful;  though  he  commonly  spoke  in  a 
low  and  somewhat  monotonous  tone,  which  harmonized 
admirably  with  the  weight  and  brevity  of  his  observations, 
and  set  off  to  the  greatest  advantage  the  pleasant  anec- 
dotes which  he  delivered  with  the  same  grave  tone,  and 
the  same  calm  smile  playing  soberly  on  his  lips. 

1 '  There  was  nothing  of  effort,  indeed,  or  of  impatience, 
any  more  than  of  pride  or  levity,  in  his  demeanor;  and 
there  was  a  finer  expression  of  reposing  strength,  and  mild 
self-possession  in  his  manner,  than  we  ever  recollect  to 
have  met  with  in  any  other  person.  He  had  in  his  char- 
acter the  utmost  abhorrence  for  all  sorts  of  forwardness, 
parade,  and  pretension ;  and  indeed  never  failed  to  put  all 
such  impostors  out  of  countenance,  by  the  manly  plainness 
and  honest  intrepidity  of  his  language  and  deportment. 

"He  was  twice  married,  but  has  left  no  issue  but  one 
son,  associated  with  him  in  his  business  and  studies, 
and  two  grandchildren  by  a  daughter  who  predeceased 
him.  He  was  fellow  of  the  Royal  Societies  both  of  Lon- 
don and  Edinburgh,  and  one  of  the  few  Englishmen 
who  were  elected  members  of  the  National  Institute  of 
France.  All  men  of  learning  and  of  science  were  his 
cordial  friends;  and  such  was  the  influence  of  his  mild 
character,  and  perfect  fairness  and  liberality,  even  upon 
the  pretender  to  these  accomplishments,  that  he  lived 
to  disarm  even  envy  itself,  and  died,  we  verily  be- 
lieve, without  a  single  enemy." 


VI 

THE  MASTER  WORKER 

WE  have  already  pointed  out  at  some  length 
that,  in    the   hands   of    Watt,   the   steam 
engine  came    at  once   to    be   a  relatively 
perfect  apparatus,  and  that  only  three  really  important 
modifications  have  been  applied  to  it  since  the  day  of  its 
great  perfecter.    These  modifications,  as  already  named, 
are  the  doing  away  with  the  walking  beam,  the  utiliza- 
tion of  high  pressure  steam,  and  the  development  of  the 
compound  engine.     Each  of  these  developments  re- 
quires a  few  words  of  explanation. 

The  retention  of  the  heavy  walking  beam  for  so  long 
a  time  after  the  steam  engine  of  Watt  had  been  applied 
to  the  various  purposes  of  machinery,  illustrates  the 
power  of  a  pre-conceived  idea.  With  the  Newcomen 
engine  this  beam  was  an  essential,  since  it  was  necessary 
to  have  a  weight  to  assist  in  raising  the  piston.  But  with 
the  introduction  of  steam  rather  than  air  as  the  actual 
power  to  push  the  piston,  and  in  particular  with  the 
elaboration  of  the  double-chamber  cylinder,  with  steam 
acting  equally  on  either  side  of  the  piston,  the  necessity 
for  retaining  this  cumbersome  contrivance  no  longer 
existed.  Yet  we  find  all  the  engines  made  by  Watt 
himself,  and  nearly  all  those  of  his  contemporaries, 
continuing  to  utilize  this  means  of  transmitting  the 

[no] 


THE   MASTER  WORKER 

power  of  the  piston.  Even  the  road  locomotive,  as 
illustrated  by  that  first  wonderful  one  of  Trevithick's 
and  such  colliery  locomotives  as  "Puffing  Billy"  and 
''Locomotion,"  utilized  the  same  plan.  It  was  not 
until  almost  a  generation  later  that  it  became  clear  to 
the  mechanics  that  in  many  cases,  indeed  in  most 
cases,  this  awkward  means  of  transmitting  power  was 
really  a  needlessly  wasteful  one,  and  that  with  the  aid 
of  fly-wheel  and  crank-shaft  the  thrust  of  the  piston 
might  be  directly  applied  to  the  wheel  it  was  destined 
to  turn,  quite  as  well  as  through  the  intermediary 
channel  of  the  additional  lever. 

The  utility  of  the  beam  has,  indeed,  still  commended 
it  for  certain  purposes,  notably  for  the  propulsion  of 
side-wheel  steamers,  such  as  the  familiar  American 
ferryboat.  But  aside  from  such  exceptional  uses,  the 
beam  has  practically  passed  out  of  existence. 

There  was  no  new  principle  involved  in  effecting  this 
change.  It  was  merely  another  illustration  of  the  famil- 
iar fact  that  it  is  difficult  to  do  things  simply.  As  a  rule, 
inventors  fumble  for  a  long  time  with  roundabout  and 
complex  ways  of  doing  things,  before  a  direct  and  simple 
method  occurs  to  them.  In  other  words,  the  highest 
development  of  ten  passes  from  the  complex  to  the  simple, 
illustrating,  as  it  were,  an  oscillation  in  the  great  law 
of  evolution.  So  in  this  case,  even  so  great  an  inventor 
as  Watt  failed  to  see  the  utility  of  doing  away  with  the 
cumbersome  structure  which  his  own  invention  had  made 
no  longer  a  necessity,  but  rather  a  hindrance  to  the  appli- 
cation of  the  steam  engine.  However,  a  new  generation, 
no  longer  under  the  thraldom  of  the  ideas  of  the  great 

[in] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

inventor,  was  enabled  to  make  the  change,  gradually, 
but  in  the  end  effectively. 

HIGH-PRESSURE  STEAM 

As  regards  the  use  of  steam  under  high  pressure, 
somewhat  the  same  remarks  apply,  so  far  as  concerns 
the  conservatism  of  mankind,  and  the  influence  which  a 
great  mind  exerts  upon  its  generation.  Just  why  Watt 
should  have  conceived  an  antagonism  to  the  idea  of 
high-pressure  steam  is  not  altogether  clear.  It  has  been 
suggested,  indeed,  that  this  might  have  been  due  to  the 
fact  that  a  predecessor  of  Watt  had  invented  a  high- 
pressure  engine  which  did  not  use  the  principle  of  con- 
densation, but  exhausted  the  steam  into  open  space. 
As  early  as  1725,  indeed,  Leupold  in  his  Theatmm 
Machinarum,  had  described  such  a  non-condensing 
engine,  which,  had  it  been  made  practically  useful, 
would  have  required  a  high  pressure  of  steam.  Partly 
through  the  influence  of  this  work,  perhaps,  there  came 
to  be  an  association  between  the  words  high  pressure 
and  non-condensing,  so  that  these  terms  are  considered 
to  be  virtually  synonymous;  and  since  Watt's  great 
contribution  consisted  of  an  application  of  the  idea  of 
condensation,  he  was  perhaps  rendered  antagonistic  to 
the  idea  of  high  pressure,  through  this  psychological 
suggestion.  In  any  event,  the  antagonism  unquestion- 
ably existed  in  his  mind;  though  it  has  often  enough 
been  pointed  out  that  this  seems  the  more  curious  since 
high-pressure  steam  would  so  much  better  have  facili- 
tated the  application  of  that  other  famous  idea  of 
Watt,  the  use  of  the  expansive  property  of  steam. 

[112] 


THE   MASTER   WORKER 

Curiously  enough,  however,  the  influence  of  Watt 
led  to  experiments  in  high-pressure  steam  through  an 
indirect  channel.  The  contemporary  inventor,  Trevi- 
thick,  in  connection  with  his  partner,  Bull,  had  made 
direct-acting  pumping  engines  with  an  inverted  cylinder, 
fixed  in  line  with  the  pump  rod,  and  actually  dispens- 
ing with  the  beam.  But  as  these  engines  used  a  jet  of 
cold  water  in  the  exhaust  pipe  to  condense  the  steam, 
Boulton  and  Watt  brought  suit  successfully  for  in- 
fringement of  their  patent,  and  thus  prevented  Trevi- 
thick  from  experimenting  further  in  that  direction. 
He  was  obliged,  therefore,  to  turn  his  attention  to  a 
different  method,  and  probably,  in  part  at  least,  in  this 
way  was  led  to  introduce  the  non-condensing,  relatively 
high-pressure  engine.  This  was  used  about  the  year 
1800.  At  the  same  time  somewhat  similar  experiments 
were  made  by  Oliver  Evans  in  America. 

Both  Trevithick  and  Evans  applied  their  engines  to 
the  propulsion  of  road  vehicles;  and  Trevithick  is 
credited  with  being  the  first  man  who  ran  a  steam 
locomotive  on  a  track, — a  feat  which  he  accomplished 
as  early  as  the  year  1804.  We  are  not  here  concerned 
with  the  details  of  this  accomplishment,  which  will 
demand  our  attention  in  a  later  chapter,  when  we  come 
to  discuss  the  entire  subject  of  locomotive  transporta- 
tion. But  it  is  interesting  to  recall  that  the  possibilities 
of  the  steam  engine  were  thus  early  realized,  even 
though  another  generation  elapsed  before  they  were 
finally  demonstrated  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  public. 
It  is  particularly  interesting  to  note  that  in  his  first  loco- 
motive engine,  Trevithick  allowed  the  steam  exhaust 
VOL.  vi.—  8  [113] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

to  escape  into  the  funnel  of  the  engine  to  increase  the 
draught, — an  expedient  which  was  so  largely  responsible 
for  Stephenson's  success  with  his  locomotive  twenty 
years  later,  and  which  retains  its  utility  in  the  case  of 
the  most  highly  developed  modern  locomotive. 

Trevithick  was,  however,  entirely  subordinated  by 
the  great  influence  of  Watt,  and  the  use  of  high  pressure 
was  in  consequence  discountenanced  by  the  leading 
mechanical  engineers  of  England  for  some  decades. 
Meantime,  in  America,  the  initiative  of  Evans  led  to  a 
much  earlier  general  use  of  high-pressure  steam.  In 
due  course,  however,  the  advantages  of  steam  under 
high  pressure  became  evident  to  engineers  everywhere, 
and  its  conquest  was  finally  complete. 

The  essential  feature  of  super-heated  steam  is  that  it 
contains,  as  the  name  implies,  an  excess  of  heat  beyond 
the  quantity  necessary  to  produce  mere  vaporiza- 
tion, and  that  the  amount  of  water  represented  in  this 
vapor  is  not  the  maximum  possible  under  given  con- 
ditions. In  other  words,^  the  vapor  is  not  saturated.  It 
has  been  already  explained  that  the  amount  of  vapor 
that  can  be  taken  up  in  a  given  space  under  a  given 
pressure  varies  with  the  temperature  of  the  space. 
Under  normal  conditions,  when  a  closed  space  exists 
above  a  liquid,  evaporation  occurs  from  the  surface  of 
the  liquid  until  the  space  is  saturated,  and  no  further 
evaporation  can  occur  so  long  as  the  temperature  and 
pressure  are  unchanged.  If  now  the  same  space  is  heated 
to  a  higher  degree,  more  vapor  will  be  taken  up  until 
again  the  point  of  saturation  is  attained.  But,  obviously, 
if  the  space  were  disconnected  with  the  liquid,  and 


OLD    IDEAS    AND   NEW   APPLIED   TO    BOILER    CONSTRUCTION. 

The  lower  figure  shows  Robert  Trevethick's  famous  boiler,  used  in  operat- 
ing his  locomotive  about  the  year  1804.  The  original  is  preserved  in  the  South 
Kensington  Museum,  London.  The  upper  figure  shows  a  modern  tubular  boiler, 
by  way  of  contrast. 


THE   MASTER  WORKER 

then  heated,  it  would  acquire  a  capacity  to  take  up 
more  vapor,  and  so  long  as  this  capacity  was  latent,  the 
vapor  present  would  exist  in  a  super-heated  condition. 

It  will  be  understood  from  what  has  been  said 
before,  that  with  all  accessions  of  heat,  the  expansive 
power  of  the  vapor  is  increased, — its  molecules  be- 
coming increasingly  active;  hence  one  of  the  very  ob- 
vious advantages  of  super-heated  steam  for  the  purpose 
of  pushing  a  piston.  There  are  other  advantages, 
however,  which  are  not  at  first  sight  so  apparent, 
having  to  do  with  the  properties  of  condensation.  To 
understand  these,  we  must  pay  heed  for  a  few  moments 
to  the  changes  that  take  place  in  steam  itself  in  the  course 
of  its  passage  through  the  cylinder,  where  it  performs  its 
work  upon  the  piston. 

Many  of  these  changes  were  not  fully  understood  by 
the  earlier  experimenters,  including  Watt.  Indeed  the 
theory  of  the  steam  engine,  or  rather  the  general  theory 
of  the  heat  engine,  was  not  worked  out  until  the  year 
1824,  when  the  Frenchman  Carnot  took  the  subject  in 
hand,  and  performed  a  series  of  classical  experiments, 
which  led  to  a  nearly  complete  theoretical  exposition 
of  the  subject.  It  remained,  however,  for  the  students  of 
thermo-dynamics,  about  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  with  Clausius  and  Rankine  at  their  head,  to 
perfect  the  theory  of  the  steam  engine,  and  the  general 
subject  of  the  mutual  relations  of  heat  and  mechanical 
work. 

We  are  not  here  concerned  with  any  elaboration  of 
details,  but  merely  with  a  few  of  the  essential  principles 
which  enter  practically  into  the  operation  of  the  steam 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

engine.  It  appears,  then,  that  when  steam  enters  the 
cylinder  and  begins  to  thrust  back  the  piston  of  the  steam 
engine,  a  portion  of  the  steam  is  immediately  condensed 
on  the  walls  of  the  cylinder,  owing  to  the  fact  that 
previous  condensation  of  steam  has  cooled  these  walls 
to  a  certain  extent.  We  have  already  pointed  out  that 
Watt  endeavored  in  his  earlier  experiments  to  over- 
come this  difficulty,  by  equalizing  the  temperature  of  the 
cylinder  walls  to  the  greatest  practicable  extent. 

Notwithstanding  his  efforts,  however,  and  those  of 
numberless  later  experimenters,  it  still  remains  true 
that  under  ordinary  conditions,  particularly  if  steam 
enters  the  cylinder  at  the  saturation  point,  a  very 
considerable  condensation  occurs.  Indeed  this  may 
amount  to  from  thirty  to  fifty  per  cent,  of  the  entire 
bulk  of  water  contained  in  the  quantity  of  steam  that 
enters  the  cylinder.  This  condensation  obviously  mili- 
tates against  the  expansive  or  working  power  of  the  steam. 
But  now  as  the  steam  expands,  pushing  forward  the 
cylinder,  it  becomes  correspondingly  rarefied,  and  im- 
mediately a  portion  of  the  condensed  steam  becomes 
again  vaporized,  and  in  so  doing  it  takes  up  a  certain 
amount  of  heat  and  renders  it  latent.  This  disadvan- 
tageous cycle  of  molecular  transformations  is  very 
much  modified  in  the  case  of  super-heated  steam,  for 
the  obvious  reason  that  such  steam  may  be  very  much 
below  the  saturation  point,  and  hence  requires  a  very 
much  greater  lowering  of  temperature  in  order  to  produce 
condensation  of  any  portion  of  its  mass.  Without 
elaborating  details,  it  suffices  to  note  that  in  all  highly 
efficient  modern  engines,  steam  is  employed  at  a  rela- 


THE   MASTER  WORKER 

tively  high  pressure,  and  that  sometimes  this  pressure 
becomes  enormous. 

COMPOUND  ENGINES 

As  to  the  compound  engine,  that  also,  as  has  been 
pointed  out,  was  invented  by  a  contemporary  of  Watt, 
Jonathan  Horn  blower  by  name,  whose  patent  bears 
date  of  1781.  In  Horn  blower's  engine,  steam  was 
first  admitted  to  a  small  cylinder,  and  then,  after  per- 
forming its  work  on  the  piston,  was  allowed  to  escape, 
not  into  a  condensing  receptacle,  but  into  a  larger 
cylinder  where  it  performed  further  work  upon  another 
piston.  This  was  obviously  an  instance  of  the  use  of 
steam  expansively,  and  it  has  been  pointed  out  that,  in 
consequence,  Hornblower  was  the  first  to  make  use 
of  this  idea  in  practise,  although  it  is  said  that  Watt's 
experiments  had  even  at  that  time  covered  this  field. 
The  application  of  the  idea  to  the  movement  of  the 
second  cylinder,  however,  appears  to  have  been  original 
with  Hornblower.  Certainly  it  owed  nothing  to  Watt, 
who  refused  to  accept  the  idea,  and  continued  through- 
out his  life  to  frown  upon  the  compound  engine. 

Nevertheless,  the  device  had  great  utility,  as  subse- 
quent experiments  were  very  fully  to  demonstrate. 
The  compound  engine  was  revived  by  Woolf  in  1804, 
and  his  name  rather  than  Hornblower 's  is  commonly 
associated  with  it.  The  latter  experimenter  demon- 
strated that  the  compound  engine  has  two  important 
merits  as  against  the  simple  engine.  One  of  these  is 
that  the  sum  of  the  two  forces  exerted  by  the  joint  ac- 
tion results  in  a  more  even  and  continuous  pressure 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

throughout  the  cycle  than  could  be  accomplished  by 
the  action  of  a  single  cylinder. 

To  understand  this  it  must  be  recalled  that  when  using 
the  expansive  property  of  steam,  the  piston  thrust  could 
not  possibly  be  uniform,  since  the  greatest  pressure 
exerted  by  the  steam  would  be  exerted  at  the  moment 
before  it  was  shut  off  from  the  boiler,  and  its  pressure 
must  then  decrease  progressively,  as  it  exerts  more 
and  more  work  upon  the  piston  and  becomes  more 
expanded,  thus  obviously  retaining  less  elastic  energy. 
The  operation  of  the  fly-wheel  largely  compensates 
this  difference  of  pressure  in  practise,  but  it  would  be 
obviously  advantageous  could  the  pressure  be  equalized ; 
and,  as  just  stated,  the  compound  engine  tends  to  pro- 
duce this  result. 

The  second,  and  perhaps  the  more  important  merit 
of  the  compound  engine  is,  that  it  is  found  in  practise  to 
keep  the  cylinders  at  a  more  uniform  temperature.  A 
moment's  reflection  makes  it  clear  why  this  should  be 
the  case,  since  in  a  single-cylinder  engine  the  exhaust 
connects  with  the  cool  condenser,  whereas  in  the  com- 
pound engine  the  exhaust  from  the  first  cylinder  con- 
nects with  the  second  cylinder  at  only  slightly  lower 
temperature. 

In  many  modern  engines  a  third  cylinder  and  some- 
times even  a  fourth  is  added,  constituting  what  are 
called  respectively  triple-expansion  and  quadruple- 
expansion  engines.  The  triple-expansion  system  is 
very  generally  employed,  especially  where  it  is  peculiarly 
desirable  to  economize  fuel,  as,  for  example,  in  the  case 
of  ships. 

[118] 


COMPOUND   ENGINES. 


The  lower  figure  illustrates  the  use  of  a  modern  compound  engine,  di- 
rectly operating  the  propeller  shaft  of  a  steamship.  The  middle  figure 
shows  a  similarly  direct  application  of  power  to  the  axes  of  paddle  wheels. 
The  upper  figure  shows  the  application  of  power  through  a  walking  beam 
similar  in  principle  to  that  of  the  original  Newcomen  and  Watt  engines. 


THE   MASTER  WORKER 

ROTARY  ENGINES 

All  these  improvements,  it  will  be  observed,  have 
to  do  with  details  that  do  not  greatly  modify  the  steam 
engine  from  the  original  type.  The  cylinder  with  its 
closely  fitting  piston,  as  introduced  in  the  Newcomen 
engine,  is  retained  and  constitutes  the  essential  mechan- 
ism through  which  the  energy  of  steam  is  transferred 
into  mechanical  energy.  But  from  a  comparatively 
remote  period  the  idea  has  prevailed  that  it  might  be 
possible  to  utilize  a  different  principle;  that,  in  short, 
if  the  steam  instead  of  being  made  to  press  against  a 
piston  were  allowed  to  rush  against  fan-like  blades, 
adjusted  to  an  axle,  it  might  cause  blades  and  axle  to 
revolve,  precisely  as  a  windmill  is  made  to  revolve  by 
the  pressure  of  the  wind,  or  the  turbine  wheel  by  the 
pressure  of  water. 

In  a  word,  it  has  been  believed  that  a  turbine  engine 
might  be  constructed,  which  would  utilize  the  energy  of 
the  steam  as  advantageously  as  it  is  utilized  in  the  pis- 
ton engine,  and  at  the  same  time  would  communicate  its 
power  as  a  direct  rotation,  instead  of  as  a  straight  thrust 
that  must  be  translated  into  a  rotary  motion  by  means 
of  a  crank  or  other  mechanism. 

In  point  of  fact,  James  Watt  himself  invented  such 
an  engine,  and  patented  it  in  1782,  though  there  is  no 
evidence  that  he  ever  constructed  even  a  working  model. 
His  patent  specifications  show  "a  piston  in  the  form 
of  a  closely-fitting  radial  arm,  projecting  from  an  axial 
shaft  in  a  cylinder.  An  abutment,  arranged  as  a  flap 
is  hinged  near  a  recess  in  the  side  of  the  cylinder,  and 

["9] 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

swings  while  remaining  in  contact  with  the  piston. 
Steam  is  admitted  to  the  chamber  on  one  side  of  the 
flap,  and  so  causes  an  unbalanced  pressure  upon  the 
radial  arm." 

This  arrangement  has  been  re-invented  several  times. 
Essentially  the  same  principle  is  utilized  by  Joshua 
Routledge,  whose  name  is  well  known  in  connection 
with  the  engineer's  slide-rule.  A  model  of  this  engine 
is  preserved  in  the  South  Kensington  Museum,  and  the 
apparatus  is  described  in  the  catalogue  of  the  Museum 
as  follows: 

"The  piston  revolves  on  a  shaft  passing  through  the 
centre  of  the  cylinder  casing.  The  flap  or  valve  hinged 
to  the  casing,  with  its  free  end  resting  upon  the  piston, 
acts  like  the  bottom  of  an  ordinary  engine  cylinder. 
The  steam  inlet  port  is  on  one  side  of  the  hinge,  and 
the  exhaust  port  on  the  other.  The  admission  of  steam 
is  controlled  by  a  side  valve,  actuated  by  an  eccentric 
on  the  fly-wheel  shaft,  so  that  the  engine  could  work  ex- 
pansively, and  the  steam  pressure  resisting  the  lifting 
of  the  flap  would  also  be  greatly  reduced,  so  diminishing 
the  knock  at  this  point,  which,  however,  would  always 
be  a  serious  cause  of  trouble.  The  exhaust  steam 
passes  down  to  a  jet  condenser,  provided  with  a  supply 
of  water  from  a  containing  tank,  from  which  the  in- 
jection is  admitted  through  a  regulating  valve.  The  air 
pump,  which  draws  the  air  and  water  from  the  condenser 
and  discharges  them  through  a  pipe  passing  out  at  the 
end  of  the  tank,  is  a  rotary  machine  constructed  like  the 
engine  and  driven  by  spur  gearing  from  the  fly-wheel 
shaft.  Some  efforts  have  been  made  to  prevent  leakage 


THE   MASTER   WORKER 

by  forming  grooves  in  the  sides  of  the  revolving  piston 
and  filling  them  with  soft  packing." 

Sundry  other  rotary  engines,  some  of  them  actual 
working  models,  are  to  be  seen  at  the  South  Kensing- 
ton Museum.  There  is,  for  example,  one  invented  by  the 
Rev.  Patrick  Bell,  a  gentleman  otherwise  known  to 
fame  as  one  of  the  earliest  inventors  of  a  practical  reap- 
ing machine.  In  this  apparatus,  "A  metal  disc  is 
secured  to  a  horizontal  axis  carried  in  bearings,  and  the 
lower  half  of  the  disc  is  enclosed  by  a  chamber  of 
circular  section  having  its  axis  a  semi-circle.  One  end 
of  this  chamber  is  closed  and  provided  with  a  pipe 
through  which  steam  enters,  the  exhaust  taking  place 
through  the  open  end.  The  disc  is  provided  with  three 
holes,  each  fitted  with  a  circular  plate  turning  on  an 
axis  radial  to  the  disc,  and  these  plates  when  set  at 
right  angles  to  the  disc  become  pistons  in  the  lower 
enclosing  chamber.  Toothed  gearing  is  arranged  to 
rotate  these  pistons  into  the  plane  of  the  disc  on  leaving 
the  cylinder  and  back  again  immediately  after  entering, 
locking  levers  retaining  them  in  position  during  the  in- 
tervals. The  steam  pressure  upon  these  pistons  forces 
the  disc  round,  but  the  engine  is  non-expansive,  and  al- 
though some  provision  for  packing  has  been  made,  the 
leakage  must  have  been  considerable  and  the  wear  and 
tear  excessive." 

It  is  stated  that  almost  the  same  arrangement  was 
proposed  by  Lord  Armstrong  in  1838  as  a  water  motor, 
and  that  a  model  subsequently  constructed  gave  over 
five  horse-power  at  thirty  revolutions  per  minute,  with 
an  efficiency  of  ninety-five  per  cent. 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

Another  working  model  of  a  rotary  engine  shown  at 
the  Museum  is  one  loaned  by  Messrs.  Fielding  and  Platt 
in  1888.  "The  action  of  this  engine  depends  upon  the 
oscillating  motion  which  the  cross  of  a  universal  joint 
has  relative  to  the  containing  jaws  when  the  system  is 
rotated. 

"Two  shafts  are  set  at  an  angle  of  165  deg.  to  each 
other  and  connected  by  a  Hooke's  joint;  one  serves  as 
a  pivot,  the  power  being  taken  from  the  other.  Four 
curved  pistons  are  arranged  on  the  cross-piece,  two 
pointing  towards  one  shaft  and  two  towards  the  other, 
and  on  each  shaft  or  jaw  are  formed  two  curved  steam 
cylinders  in  which  the  curved  pistons  work.  The  steam 
enters  and  leaves  the  base  of  each  cylinder  through 
ports  in  the  shaft,  which  forms  a  cylindrical  valve 
working  in  the  bearing  as  a  seating. 

"On  the  revolution  of  the  shafts  the  pistons  recipro- 
cate in  their  cylinders  in  much  the  same  way  as  in  an 
ordinary  engine,  and  the  valve  arrangement  is  such 
that  while  each  piston  is  receding  from  its  cylinder  the 
steam  pressure  is  driving  it,  and  during  the  in-stroke 
of  each,  its  cylinder  is  in  communication  with  the  ex- 
haust. There  are  thus  four  single-acting  cylinders 
making  each  a  double  stroke  for  one  revolution  of  the 
driving-shaft.  The  engine  has  no  dead  centres,  and  has 
been  at  1,000  revolutions  per  minute." 

It  is  not  necessary  to  describe  other  of  the  rotary 
engines  that  have  been  made  along  more  or  less  similar 
lines  by  numerous  inventors,  models  of  which  are  for 
the  most  part,  as  in  the  case  of  those  just  described,  to 
be  seen  more  commonly  in  museums  than  in  practical 

[122] 


ROTARY   ENGINES. 


The  three  types  of  rotary  engines  here  shown  are  similar  in  principle,  and  none 
of  them  is  of  great  practical  value,  though  the  upper  figure  shows  an  engine  that  has 
met  with  a  certain  measure  of  commercial  success. 


THE   MASTER   WORKER 

workshops.  Reference  may  be  made,  however,  to  a 
rotary  engine  which  was  invented  by  a  Mr.  Hoffman, 
of  Buffalo,  New  York,  about  the  beginning  of  the 
twentieth  century,  an  example  of  which  was  put  into 
actual  operation  in  running  the  machinery  of  a  shop 
in  Buffalo,  in  1905. 

This  engine  consists  of  a  solid  elliptical  shaft  of  steel, 
fastened  to  an  axle  at  one  side  of  its  centre,  which  axis 
is  also  the  shaft  of  the  cylinder,  which  revolves  about 
the  central  ellipse  in  such  a  way  that  at  one  part  of  the 
revolution  the  cylinder  surface  fits  tightly  against  the 
ellipse,  while  the  opposite  side  of  the  cylinder  supplies 
a  free  chamber  between  the  ellipse  and  the  cylinder  walls. 
Running  the  length  of  the  cylinder  are  two  curved  pieces 
of  steel,  like  longitudinal  sections  of  a  tube.  These 
flanges  are  adjusted  at  opposite  sides  of  the  cylinder  and 
so  arranged  that  their  sides  at  all  times  press  against  the 
ellipse,  alternately  retreating  into  the  substance  of  the 
cylinder,  and  coming  out  into  the  free  chamber.  Steam 
is  admitted  to  the  free  chamber  through  one  end  of  the 
shaft  of  ellipse  and  cylinder  and  exhausted  through 
the  other  end.  The  pressure  of  the  steam  against  first 
one  end  and  then  the  other  of  the  flanges  supplies  the 
motive  power.  This  pressure  acts  always  in  one  di- 
rection, and  the  entire  apparatus  revolves,  the  cylinder, 
however,  revolving  more  rapidly  than  the  central  ellipse. 

For  this  engine  the  extravagant  claim  is  made  that 
there  is  no  limit  to  its  speed  of  revolution,  within  the 
limit  of  resistance  of  steel  to  centrifugal  force.  It  has 
been  estimated  that  a  locomotive  might  be  made  to  run 
two  hundred  or  three  hundred  miles  an  hour  without 

[123] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

difficulty,  with  the  Hoffman  engine.  Such  estimates, 
however,  are  theoretical,  and  it  remains  to  be  seen  what 
the  engine  can  do  in  practise  when  applied  to  a  variety 
of  tasks,  and  what  are  its  limitations.  Certainly  the 
apparatus  is  at  once  ingenious  and  simple  in  principle, 
and  there  is  no  obvious  theoretical  reason  why  it  should 
not  have  an  important  future. 


TURBINE     ENGINES 


Whatever  the  future  may  hold,  however,  it  remains 
true  that  the  first  practical  solution  of  the  problem  of 
securing  direct  rotary  motion  from  the  action  of  steam, 
on  a  really  commercial  scale,  was  solved  with  an  ap- 
paratus very  different  from  any  of  those  just  described, 
the  inventor  being  an  Englishman,  Mr.  C.  A.  Parsons, 
and  the  apparatus  the  steam  turbine,  the  first  model  of 
which  he  constructed  in  1884,  and  which  began  to 
attract  general  attention  in  the  course  of  the  ensuing 
decade.  Public  interest  was  fully  aroused  in  1897, 
when  Mr.  Parson's  boat,  the  Turbinia,  equipped  with 
engines  of  this  type,  showed  a  trial  speed  of  32!  knots 
per  hour,  a  speed  never  hitherto  attained  by  any  other 
species  of  water  craft.  More  recently,  a  torpedo  boat, 
the  Viper,  equipped  with  engines  developing  about  ten 
thousand  horse-power,  attained  a  speed  of  35 J  knots. 
The  success  of  these  small  boats  led  to  the  equipment 
of  large  vessels  with  the  turbine,  and  on  April  first, 
1905,  the  first  transatlantic  liner  propelled  by  this  form 
of  engine  steamed  into  the  harbor  of  Halifax,  Nova 
Scotia. 

[124] 


THE    MASTKR    WORKER 

This  first  ocean  liner  equipped  with  the  turbine  en- 
gine is  called  the  Victorian.  She  is  a  ship  five  hundred 
and  forty  feet  long  and  sixty  feet  wide,  carrying  fifteen 
hundred  passengers.  The  Victorian  had  shown  a  speed 
of  19 J  knots  an  hour  on  her  trial  trip,  and  it  had  been 
hoped  that  she  would  break  the  transatlantic  record. 
On  her  first  trip,  however,  she  encountered  adverse 
winds  and  seas,  and  did  not  attain  great  speed.  Her 
performance  was,  however,  considered  entirely  satisfac- 
tory and  creditable. 

In  the  ensuing  half-decade  several  large  ships  were 
equipped  with  engines  of  the  same  type,  the  most  fa- 
mous of  these  being  the  Cunard  liners,  Carmania,  Lusi- 
tania,  and  Mauretania.  The  two  last-named  ships  are 
sister  craft,  and  they  are  the  largest  boats  of  any  kind 
hitherto  constructed.  The  Lusitania  was  first  launched 
and  she  entered  immediately  upon  a  record-breaking 
career,  only  to  be  surpassed  within  a  few  months  by 
the  Mauretania,  which  soon  acquired  all  records  for 
speed  and  endurance. 

Fuller  details  as  to  the  performance  of  these  vessels 
will  be  found  in  another  place.  Here  we  are  of  course 
concerned  with  the  Parsons  turbine  engine  itself  rather 
than  with  its  applications. 

This  turbine  engine  constitutes  the  first  really  impor- 
tant departure  from  the  old-type  steam  engine,  thus 
realizing  the  dream  of  the  seventeenth- century  Italian, 
Branca,  to  which  reference  was  made  above.  Mr. 
Parsons'  elaboration  of  the  idea  developed  a  good  deal 
of  complexity  as  regards  the  number  of  parts  involved, 
yet  his  engine  is  of  the  utmost  simplicity  in  principle. 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

It  consists  of  a  large  number  of  series  of  small  blades, 
each  series  arranged  about  a  drum  which  revolves. 
Between  the  rings  of  revolving  blades  are  adjusted  cor- 
responding rings  of  fixed  blades,  which  project  from 
the  casing  to  the  cylinder,  and  by  means  of  which  the 
steam  is  regulated  in  direction,  so  that  it  strikes  at  the 
proper  angle  against  the  revolving  blades  of  the  turbine. 

In  practise,  three  series  of  cylindrical  drums  are  used, 
each  containing  a  large  number  of  rings  of  blades  of 
uniform  size;  but  each  successive  drum  having  longer 
blades,  to  accommodate  the  greater  volume  of  the  ex- 
panding steam.  The  steam  is  fed  against  the  first  series 
of  blades  in  gusts,  which  may  be  varied  in  frequency 
and  length  to  meet  the  requirements  of  speed.  After 
impinging  on  the  first  circle  of  blades,  the  steam  passes 
to  the  next  under  slightly  reduced  pressure,  and  the 
pressure  is  thus  successively  stepped  down  from  one 
set  of  blades  to  another  until  it  is  ultimately  reduced  from 
say  two  hundred  pounds  to  the  square  inch,  to  one 
pound  to  the  square  inch  before  it  passes  to  the  condenser 
and  ceases  to  act. 

There  is  thus  a  fuller  utilization  of  the  kinetic  energy 
of  the  gas,  through  carrying  it  from  high  to  low  pres- 
sure, than  is  possible  with  the  old  type  of  cylinder-and- 
piston  engine.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  a  constant 
loss  due  to  the  fact  that  the  blades  of  the  turbine  can  not 
fit  with  absolute  tightness  against  the  cylinder  walls. 
The  net  result  is  that  the  compound  turbine,  as  at  pres- 
ent developed,  appears  to  have  about  the  same  efficiency 
as  the  best  engine  of  the  old  type. 

One  capital  advantage  of  the  turbine  is  that  it  keeps 


THE   MASTER   WORKER 

the  cylinder  walls  at  a  more  uniform  temperature  than 
is  possible  even  with  a  compound  engine  of  the  old  type. 
Another  advantage  is  that  the  power  of  the  turbine 
is  applied  directly  to  cause  rotation  of  the  shaft,  where- 
as no  satisfactory  means  has  ever  been  discovered  hither- 
to of  making  the  action  of  the  steam  engine  rotary,  ex- 
cept with  the  somewhat  disadvantageous  crank-shaft. 
This  fact  of  adjustment  of  the  turbine  blades  to  the  re- 
volving shaft  seems  to  make  this  form  of  engine  par- 
ticularly adapted  to  use  in  steamships.  It  is  also  highly 
adapted  to  revolving  the  shaft  of  a  dynamo,  and  has 
been  largely  applied  to  this  use.  Needless  to  say, 
however,  it  may  be  applied  to  any  other  form  of  machin- 
ery. It  would  be  difficult  at  the  present  stage  of  its  de- 
velopment to  predict  the  extent  to  which  the  turbine 
will  ultimately  supersede  the  old  type  of  engine.  Its 
progress  has  already  been  extraordinary,  however,  as  an 
engineer  pointed  out  in  the  London  Times  of  August 
14,  1907,  in  the  following  words: 

"When  the  steam  turbine  was  introduced  by  Mr. 
Parsons  some  25  years  ago,  in  the  form  of  a  little  model, 
which  is  now  hi  the  South  Kensington  Museum, 
and  the  rotor  of  which  may  easily  be  held  stationary 
by  the  hand  against  the  full  blast  of  the  steam,  who  would 
have  been  rash  enough  to  predict,  except  perhaps  the 
far-seeing  inventor  himself,  that  a  vessel  760  feet  long, 
loaded  to  37,000  tons  displacement,  drawing  32  ft.  9  in. 
of  water,  and  providing  accommodation  for  2,500  people, 
could  be  propelled  at  a  speed  of  24.5  knots  per  hour, 
which  it  is  hoped  she  may  maintain  over  the  3,000 
miles  of  the  Atlantic  voyage? 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

"From  this  small  model,  which  will  in  time  become 
as  historic  as  the  Rocket  of  Stephenson,  and  which  is 
only  some  few  inches  in  diameter,  the  turbine  has  been 
developed  gradually  in  size.  The  cylindrical  casings 
which  take  the  place  of  the  complicated  machinery  of 
the  piston  engine  in  the  engine  room  of  the  Lusitania 
contain  drums,  which  in  the  high-pressure  turbines  are 
8  feet  in  diameter  and  in  the  low-pressure  n  ft.  8  in., 
and  from  which  thousands  of  curved  blades  project,  the 
longest  of  which  are  22  inches,  and  against  which  the 
steam  impinges  in  its  course  from  the  boiler  to  the  con- 
denser. 

"Not  only  has  the  steam  turbine  justified  the  con- 
fidence of  those  who  have  labored  so  successfully  in  its 
development,  but  no  other  great  invention  has  pro- 
ceeded from  the  laboratory  stage  to  such  an  important 
position  in  the  engineering  world  in  such  a  short  space 
of  time.  This  would  not  have  happened  if  some  in- 
herent drawback,  such  as  lack  of  economy  in  steam 
consumption,  existed,  and  as  the  turbine  has  been 
proved  to  be,  for  land  purposes,  very  economical,  there 
seems  to  be  no  reason  to  doubt  that  marine  turbines, 
working  as  they  do  at  full  load  almost  continually, 
will  show  likewise  that  the  coal  bill  is  not  increased, 
but  perhaps  diminished  by  their  use. 

"The  records  of  the  vibrations  of  the  hull  which 
were  taken  during  the  trials  by  Schlick's  instruments 
showed  that  the  vertical  vibration  was  60  per  minute 
on  the  run,  which  was  due  to  the  propellers,  and  which 
may  be  further  modified.  The  horizontal  vibration 
was  almost  unnoticeable,  while  the  behavior  of  the 


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THE   MASTER  WORKER 

ship  in  the  heavy  seas  she  encountered  in  her  long-dis- 
tance runs  was  good,  the  roll  from  side  to  side  having  a 
period  of  18  seconds.  The  great  length  of  this  ship 
and  the  gyrostatic  action  of  the  heavy  rotating  masses 
of  the  machinery  ought  to  render  her  almost  insensible 
to  the  heaviest  Atlantic  rollers;  certainly  as  far  as 
pitching  is  concerned." 

A  more  general  comment  upon  the  turbine  engine, 
with  particular  reference  to  its  use  in  America,  is  made 
by  Mr.  Edward  H.  Sanborn  in  an  article  on  Motive 
Power  Appliances,  in  the  Twelfth  Census  Report  of 
the  United  States,  Vol.  X.  part  IV. 

"Apart  from  its  demonstrated  economy,"  says  Mr. 
Sanborn,  "other  important  advantages  are  claimed  for 
the  steam  turbine,  some  of  which  are  worthy  of  brief 
mention. 

"There  is  an  obvious  advantage  in  economy  of  space 
as  compared  with  the  reciprocating  engine.  The  largest 
steam  turbine  constructed  in  the  United  States  is  one  of 
3,000  horse-power,  which  is  installed  in  the  power 
house  of  the  Hartford  Electric  Light  Company,  Hart- 
ford, Conn.  The  total  weight  of  this  motor  is  28,000 
pounds,  its  length  over  all  is  19  feet  8  inches,  and  its 
greatest  diameter  six  feet.  With  the  generator  to  which 
it  is  directly  connected,  it  occupies  a  floor  space  of  33 
feet  3  inches  long  by  8  feet  9  inches  wide. 

"Friction  is  reduced  to  a  minimum  in  the  steam  tur- 
bine, owing  to  the  absence  of  sliding  parts  and  the  small 
number  of  bearings.  The  absence  of  internal  lubrica- 
tion is  also  an  important  consideration,  especially  when 
it  is  desired  to  use  condensers. 

VOL.  vi. -9 


THE   CONQUEST   OF   NATURE 

"As  there  are  no  reciprocating  parts  in  a  steam  tur- 
bine, and  as  a  perfect  balance  of  its  rotating  parts  is 
absolutely  essential  to  its  successful  operation,  vibration 
is  reduced  to  such  a  small  element  that  the  simplest 
foundations  will  suffice,  and  it  is  safe  to  locate  steam 
turbines  on  upper  floors  of  a  factory  if  this  be  desirable 
or  necessary. 

"The  perfect  balance  of  the  moving  parts  and  the 
extreme  simplicity  of  construction  tend  to  minimize  the 
wear  and  increase  the  life  of  a  turbine,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  reduce  the  chance  of  interruption  in  its  operation 
through  derangement  of,  or  damage  to,  any  of  its  essen- 
tial parts. 

"Although  hardly  beyond  the  stage  of  its  first  advent 
in  the  motive-power  field,  the  steam  turbine  has  met 
with  much  favor,  and  there  is  promise  of  its  wide  use  for 
the  purposes  to  which  it  is  particularly  adapted.  At 
present,  however,  its  uses  are  restricted  to  service  that 
is  continuous  and  regular,  its  particular  adaptability 
being  for  the  driving  of  electrical  generators,  pumps, 
ventilating  fans,  and  similar  work,  especially  where 
starting  under  load  is  not  essential. 

"Steam  turbines  are  now  being  built  in  the  United 
States  in  all  sizes  up  to  3,000  horse-power.  Their  use 
abroad  covers  a  longer  period  and  has  become  more 
general.  The  largest  turbines  thus  far  attempted  are 
those  of  the  Metropolitan  District  Electric  Traction 
Company,  of  London,  embracing  four  units  of  10,000 
horse-power  each.  Several  turbines  of  large  size  have 
been  operated  successfully  in  Germany." 

It  should  be  added  that  the  compound  turbine  wheel 


THE   MASTER  WORKER 

of  Parsons  is  not  the  only  turbine  wheel  that  has 
proved  commercially  valuable.  There  is  a  turbine  con- 
sisting of  a  single  ring  of  revolving  blades,  the  invention 
of  Dr.  Gustav  De  Laval,  which  has  proved  itself  capable 
of  competing  with  the  old  type  of  engine.  To  make  this 
form  of  single  turbine  operate  satisfactorily,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  have  steam  under  high  pressure,  and  to  generate 
a  very  high  speed  of  revolution.  In  practice,  the  De 
Laval  machines  sometimes  attain  a  speed  of  thirty 
thousand  revolutions  per  minute.  This  is  a  much 
higher  rate  of  speed  than  can  advantageously  be  utilized 
directly  in  ordinary  machinery,  and  consequently  the 
shaft  of  this  machine  is  geared  to  another  shaft  in  such  a 
way  as  to  cause  the  second  shaft  to  revolve  much  more 
slowly. 


VII 

GAS   AND   OIL   ENGINES 

JUST  at  the  time  when  the  type  of  piston-and- 
cylinder  engine  has  thus  been  challenged,  it  has 
chanced  that  a  new  motive  power  has  been  applied 
to  the  old  type  of  engine,  through  the  medium  of  heated 
gas.    The  idea  of  such  utilization  of  a  gas  other  than 
water  vapor  is  by  no  means  new,  but  there  have  been 
practical  difficulties  in  the  way  of  the  construction  of  a 
commercial  engine  to  make  use  of  the  expansive  power 
of  ordinary  gases. 

The  principle  involved  is  based  on  the  familiar  fact 
that  a  gas  expands  on  being  heated  and  contracts  when 
cool.  Theoretically,  then,  all  that  is  necessary  is  to  heat 
a  portion  of  air  confined  in  a  cylinder,  to  secure  the  ad- 
vantage of  its  expansion,  precisely  as  the  expansion  of 
steam  is  utilized,  by  thrusting  forward  a  piston.  Such 
an  apparatus  constitutes  a  so-called  "caloric"  or  hot- 
air  engine.  As  long  ago  as  the  year  1807  Sir  G.  Cayley 
in  England  produced  a  motor  of  this  type,  in  which  the 
heated  air  passed  directly  from  the  furnace  to  the 
cylinder,  where  it  did  work  while  expanding  until  its 
pressure  was  not  greater  than  that  of  the  atmosphere, 
when  it  was  discharged.  The  chief  mechanical  diffi- 
culty encountered  resulted  from  the  necessity  for  the 
employment  of  very  high  temperatures;  and  for  a  long 


GAS   AND   OIL   ENGINES 

time  the  engine  had  no  great  commercial  utility.  The 
idea  was  revived,  however,  about  three-quarters  of  a 
century  later  and  an  engine  operated  on  Cayley's 
principle  was  commercially  introduced  in  England  by 
Mr.  Buckett.  This  engine  has  a  cold-air  cylinder  above 
the  crank-shaft  and  a  large  hot-air  cylinder  below,  while 
the  furnace  is  on  one  side  enclosed  in  an  air-tight 
chamber.  The  fuel  is  supplied  as  required  through  a 
valve  and  distributing  cone  arranged  above  the  furnace 
and  provided  with  an  air  lock  in  which  the  fuel  is 
stored.  At  about  the  time  when  this  hot-air  engine  was 
introduced,  however,  gas  and  oil  engines  of  another  and 
more  important  type  were  developed,  as  we  shall  see 
in  a  moment. 

Meantime,  an  interesting  effort  to  utilize  the  expan- 
sive property  of  heated  air  was  made  by  Dr.  Stirling  in 
1826 ;  his  engine  being  one  in  which  heat  was  distributed 
by  means  of  a  displacer  which  moved  the  mass  of  air 
to  and  fro  between  the  hot  and  cold  portions  of  the  ap- 
paratus. He  also  compressed  the  air  before  heating  it, 
thus  making  a  distinct  advance  in  the  economy  and  com- 
pactness of  the  engine.  From  an  engineering  stand- 
point his  design  has  further  interest  in  that  it  was  a 
practical  attempt  to  construct  an  engine  working  on  the 
principle  of  the  theoretically  perfect  heat  engine,  in 
which  the  cycle  of  operations  is  closed,  the  same  mass  of 
air  being  used  throughout.  In  the  theoretically  perfect 
heat  engine,  it  may  be  added,  the  cycle  of  operations  may 
be  reversed,  there  being  no  loss  of  energy  involved;  but 
in  practice,  of  course,  an  engine  cannot  be  con- 
structed to  meet  this  ideal  condition,  as  there  is  neces- 

[133] 


THE   CONQUEST   OF   NATURE 

sarily  some  loss  through  dissipation  of  heat.  Dr. 
Stirling's  practical  engine  had  its  uses,  but  could  not 
compete  with  the  steam  engine  in  the  general  field  of 
mechanical  operations  to  which  that  apparatus  is 
applied. 

Another  important  practical  experimenter  in  the  con- 
struction of  hot-air  engines  was  John  Ericsson,  who 
in  1824  constructed  an  engine  somewhat  resembling 
the  early  one  of  Cayley,  and  in  1852  built  caloric  engines 
on  such  a  scale  as  to  be  adapted  to  the  propulsion  of 
ships.  Notwithstanding  the  genius  of  Ericsson,  how- 
ever, engines  of  this  type  did  not  prove  commercially 
successful  on  a  large  scale,  and  in  subsequent  decades 
the  hot-air  motors  constructed  for  practical  purposes 
seldom  exceeded  one  horse-power.  Such  small  engines 
as  these  are  comparatively  efficient  and  absolutely  safe, 
and  they  are  thoroughly  adapted  for  such  domestic 
purposes  as  light  pumping. 

The  great  difficulty  with  all  these  engines  operated 
with  heated  air  has  been,  as  already  suggested,  that 
their  efficiency  of  action  is  limited  by  the  difficulties 
incident  to  applying  high  temperatures  to  large  masses  of 
the  gas.  There  is,  however,  no  objection  to  the  super- 
heating of  small  quantities  of  gas,  and  it  was  early  sug- 
gested that  this  might  be  accomplished  by  exploding  a 
gaseous  mixture  within  a  cylinder.  It  was  observed 
by  the  experimenters  of  the  seventeenth  century  that  an 
ordinary  gun  constitutes  virtually  an  internal-com- 
bustion engine;  and  such  experimenters  as  the  Dutch- 
man Huyghens,  and  the  Frenchmen  Hautefeuille  and 
Papin,  attempted  to  make  practical  use  of  the  power  set 

[134] 


GAS   AND   OIL   ENGINES 

free  by  the  explosion  of  gunpowder,  their  experiments 
being  conducted  about  the  years  1678  to  1689.  Their 
results,  however,  were  not  such  as  to  give  them  other 
than  an  historical  interest.  About  a  century  later,  in 
1794,  the  Englishman  Robert  Street  suggested  the  use  of 
inflammable  gases  as  explosives,  and  ever  since  that  time 
there  have  been  occasional  experimenters  along  that 
line.  In  1823  Samuel  Brown  introduced  a  vacuum 
gas  engine  for  raising  water  by  atmospheric  pressure. 
The  first  fairly  practical  gas  engine,  however,  was  that 
introduced  by  J.  J.  E.  Lenoir,  who  in  1850  proposed  an 
engine  working  with  a  cycle  resembling  that  of  a  steam 
engine.  His  engine  patented  in  1860  proved  to  be  a 
fairly  successful  apparatus.  This  engine  of  Lenoir 
prepared  the  way  for  gas  engines  that  have  since  be- 
come so  enormously  important.  Its  method  of  action  is 
this: 

"To  start  the  engine,  the  fly-wheel  is  pulled  round, 
thus  moving  the  piston,  which  draws  into  the  cylinder  a 
mixture  of  gas  and  air  through  about  half  its  stroke;  the 
mixture  is  then  exploded  by  an  electric  spark,  and  pro- 
pels the  piston  to  the  end  of  its  stroke,  the  pressure 
meanwhile  falling,  by  cooling  and  expansion,  to  that  of 
the  atmosphere  when  exhaust  takes  place.  In  the  re- 
turn stroke  the  process  is  repeated,  the  action  of  the  en- 
gine resembling  that  of  the  double-acting  steam  engine, 
and  having  a  one-stroke  cycle.  The  cylinder  and 
covers  are  cooled  by  circulating  water.  The  firing 
electricity  was  supplied  by  two  Bunsen  batteries  and  an 
induction  coil,  the  circuit  being  completed  at  the  right 
intervals  by  contact  pieces  on  an  insulating  disc  on  the 

[135] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

crank-shaft;  the  ignition  spark  leaped  across  the  space 
between  two  wires  carried  about  one-sixth  of  an  inch 
apart  in  a  porcelain  holder." 

In  1865  Mons.  P.  Hugon  patented  an  engine  similar 
to  that  of  Lenoir,  except  that  ignition  was  accomplished 
by  an  external  flame  instead  of  by  electricity.  The 
ignition  flame  was  carried  to  and  fro  in  a  cavity  inside 
a  slide  valve,  moved  by  a  cam  so  as  to  get  a  rapid  cut-off, 
and  permanent  lights  were  maintained  at  the  ends  of  the 
valve  to  re-light  the  flame-ports  after  each  explosion. 
The  gas  was  supplied  to  the  cylinder  by  rubber  bellows, 
worked  by  an  eccentric  on  the  crank-shaft.  This  en- 
gine could  be  operated  satisfactorily,  except  as  to  cost, 
but  the  heavy  gas  consumption  made  it  uneconomical. 

An  important  improvement  in  this  regard  was  intro- 
duced by  the  Germans,  Herrn.  E.  Langen  and  N.  A. 
Otto,  who  under  patents  bearing  date  of  1866  introduced 
a  so-called  "free"  piston  arrangement — that  is  to  say 
an  arrangement  by  which  the  piston  depends  for  its  ac- 
tion partly  upon  the  momentum  of  a  fly-wheel.  This 
principle  had  been  proposed  for  a  gas  engine  as  early 
as  1857,  but  the  first  machine  to  demonstrate  its  feasibil- 
ity was  that  of  Langen  and  Otto.  Their  engine  greatly 
decreased  the  gas  consumption  and  hence  came  to  be 
regarded  as  the  first  commercially  successful  gas  engine. 
It  was,  however,  noisy  and  limited  to  small  sizes.  The 
cycle  of  operations  of  an  engine  of  this  type  is  de- 
scribed as  follows: 

"  (a)  The  piston  is  lifted  about  one-tenth  of  its  travel 
by  the  momentum  of  the  fly-wheel,  thus  drawing  in  a 
charge  of  gas  and  air. 

[136] 


GAS    AND   OIL    ENGINES. 

Lower  right-hand  figure,  a  very  early  type  of  commercially  successful  gas  engine.  It 
has  a  "free"  piston,  an  arrangement  that  was  first  proposed  for  a  gas  engine  in  1857,  but  only 
brought  into  practical  form  by  Langen  &  Otto  under  their  patent  of  1866.  Upper  figure,  the 
gas  engine  patented  by  Lenoir  in  1860,  one  of  the  very  first  practically  successful  engines. 
Lower  left-hand  figure,  a  sectional  view  of  a  modern  gas  engine  of  the  type  used  as  the  motor 
of  the  automobile. 


GAS   AND   OIL   ENGINES 

"(b)  The  charge  is  ignited  by  flame  carried  in  by  a 
slide  valve. 

"(c)  Under  the  impulse  of  the  explosion,  the  piston 
shoots  upward  nearly  to  the  top  of  the  cylinder,  the 
pressure  in  which  falls  by  expansion  to  about  4  Ibs. 
absolute,  while  absorbing  the  energy  of  the  piston. 

"(d)  The  piston  descends  by  its  own  weight  and  the 
atmospheric  pressure,  and  in  doing  so  causes  a  roller- 
clutch  on  a  spur-wheel  gearing  with  a  rack  on  the  piston- 
rod  to  engage,  so  that  the  fly-wheel  shaft  shall  be  driven 
by  the  piston;  during  this  down-stroke  the  pressure 
increases  from  4  Ibs.  absolute  to  that  of  the  atmosphere, 
and  averages  7  Ibs.  per  square  inch  effective  throughout 
the  stroke. 

"  (e)  When  the  piston  is  near  the  bottom  of  the  cylin- 
der, the  pressure  rises  above  atmospheric,  and  the  stroke 
is  completed  by  the  weight  of  the  piston  and  rack,  and 
the  products  of  combustion  are  expelled. 

"(f)  The  fly-wheel  now  continues  running  freely  till 
its  speed,  as  determined  by  a  centrifugal  governor,  falls 
below  a  certain  limit  when  a  trip  gear  causes  the  piston 
to  be  lifted  the  short  distance  required  to  recommence 
the  cycle. 

"Ignition  is  performed  by  an  external  gas  jet,  near  a 
pocket  in  the  slide  valve  by  which  the  charge  is  admitted ; 
this  pocket  carries  flame  to  the  charge,  thus  igniting  it 
without  allowing  any  escape.  The  valve  also  connects 
the  interior  of  the  cylinder  with  the  exhaust  pipe,  and  a 
valve  in  the  latter  controlled  by  the  governor  throttles 
the  discharge,  and  so  defers  the  next  stroke  until  the 
speed  has  fallen  below  normal.  To  run  the  engine  empty 

[137] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

about  four  explosions  per  minute  are  necessary,  and 
at  full  power  30  to  35  are  made,  so  that  about  28  ex- 
plosions per  minute  are  available  for  useful  work  under 
the  control  of  the  governor." 

The  definitive  improvement  in  this  gas  engine  was 
introduced  in  1876  by  Dr.  N.  A.  Otto,  when  he  com- 
pressed the  explosive  mixture  in  the  working  cylinder 
before  igniting  it.  This  expedient — so  all-important 
in  its  results — had  been  suggested  by  William  Barnett 
in  1838,  but  at  that  time  gas  engines  were  not  sufficiently 
developed  to  make  use  of  the  idea.  Now,  however,  Dr. 
Otto  demonstrated  that  by  compressing  the  gas  before 
exploding  it  a  much  more  diluted  mixture  can  be  fired, 
and  that  this  gives  a  quieter  explosion,  and  a  more  sus- 
tained pressure  during  the  working  stroke,  while  as  the 
engine  runs  at  a  high  speed  the  fly-wheel  action  is  gener- 
ally sufficient  to  correct  the  fluctuations  arising  from 
there  being  but  one  explosion  for  four  strokes  of  the 
piston. 

In  this  perfected  engine,  then,  the  method  of  opera- 
tion is  as  follows: 

The  piston  is  pulled  forward  with  the  application  of 
some  outside  force,  which  in  practice  is  supplied  by  the 
inertia  of  the  fly-wheel,  or  in  starting  the  engine  by  the 
action  of  a  crank  with  which  every  user  of  an  automobile 
is  familiar.  In  being  pulled  forward,  the  piston  draws 
gas  into  the  cylinder;  as  the  piston  returns,  this  gas  is 
compressed;  the  compressed  gas,  constituting  an 
explosive  mixture,  is  then  ignited  by  a  piece  of  in- 
candescent metal  or  by  an  electric  spark ;  the  exploding 
gas  expands,  pushing  the  piston  forward,  this  being  the 


GAS   AND   OIL  ENGINES 

only  thrust  during  which  work  is  done;  the  returning 
piston  expels  the  expanded  gas,  completing  the  cycle. 
Thus  there  are  three  ineffective  piston  thrusts  to  one 
effective  thrust.  Nevertheless,  the  engine  has  proved 
a  useful  one  for  many  purposes. 

This  so-called  Otto  cycle  has  been  adopted  in  almost 
all  gas  and  oil  engines,  the  later  improvements  being 
in  the  direction  of  still  higher  compression,  and  in  the 
substitution  of  lift  for  slide  valves.  There  has  been  a 
steady  increase  in  the  size  and  power  of  such  engines, 
the  large  ones  usually  introducing  two  or  more  working 
cylinders  so  as  to  secure  uniform  driving.  Cheap 
forms  of  gas  have  been  employed  such  as  those  made  by 
decomposing  water  by  incandescent  fuel,  and  it  has 
been  proved  possible  thus  to  operate  gas-power  plants  on 
a  commercial  scale  in  competition  with  the  most  eco- 
nomical steam  installations. 

A  practical  modification  of  vast  importance  was  in- 
troduced when  it  was  suggested  that  a  volatile  oil  be 
employed  to  supply  the  gas  for  operation  in  an  internal 
combustion  engine.  There  was  no  new  principle  in- 
volved in  this  idea,  and  the  Otto  cycle  was  still  employed 
as  before;  but  the  use  of  the  volatile  oil — either  a 
petroleum  product  or  alcohol — made  possible  the  com- 
pact portable  engine  with  which  everyone  is  nowadays 
familiar  through  its  use  in  automobiles  and  motor  boats. 
The  oil  commonly  used  is  gasoline  which  is  supplied  to 
the  cylinder  through  a  so-called  carburettor  in  which 
the  vapors  of  gasoline  are  combined  with  ordinary  air  to 
make  an  explosive  mixture.  The  introduction  of  this 
now  familiar  type  of  motor  is  to  a  large  extent  due  to 

haul 


THE   CONQUEST   OF  NATURE 

Herr  G.  Daimler,  who  in  1884  brought  out  a  light 
and  compact  high-speed  oil  engine.  About  ten  years 
later  Messrs.  Panhard  and  Levassor  devised  the  form 
of  motor  which  has  since  been  generally  adopted.  Few 
other  forms  of  mechanisms  are  better  known  to  the 
general  public  than  the  oil  engine  with  its  two,  four, 
six,  or  even  eight  cylinders,  as  used  in  the  modern 
automobile.  As  everyone  is  aware,  it  furnishes  the 
favorite  type  of  motor,  combining  extraordinary  power 
with  relative  lightness,  and  making  it  feasible  to  carry 
fuel  for  a  long  journey  in  a  receptacle  of  small  compass. 

With  the  gas  engines  a  complication  arises  precisely 
opposite  to  that  which  is  met  with  in  the  case  of  the  cyl- 
inder of  the  steam  engine — the  tendency,  namely,  to 
overheating  of  the  cylinder.  To  obviate  this  it  is  cus- 
tomary to  have  the  cylinder  surrounded  by  a  water 
jacket,  though  air  cooling  is  used  in  certain  types  of 
machines.  About  fifty  per  cent,  of  the  total  heat  other- 
wise available  is  lost  through  this  unavoidable  expedient. 

The  rapid  introduction  of  the  gas  engine  in  recent 
years  suggests  that  this  type  of  engine  may  have  a 
most  important  future.  It  has  even  been  predicted 
that  within  a  few  years  most  trans-Atlantic  steamers  will 
be  equipped  with  this  type  of  engine,  producing  their 
own  gas  in  transit.  It  is  possible,  then,  that  through 
this  medium  the  old  piston-and-cylinder  engine  may 
retain  its  supremacy,  as  against  the  turbine.  For  the 
moment,  at  any  rate,  the  gas  engine  is  gaining  popu- 
larity, not  merely  in  its  application  to  the  automobile, 
but  for  numerous  types  of  small  stationary  engines  as 
well. 

[140] 


GAS   AND   OIL   ENGINES 

In  this  connection  it  will  be  interesting  to  quote  the 
report  of  the  Special  Agent  of  the  Twelfth  Census  of 
the  United  States,  as  showing  the  status  of  gas  engines 
and  steam  engines  in  the  year  1902. 

"The  decade  between  1890  and  1900,"  he  says, 
"was  a  period  of  marked  development  in  the  use  of  gas 
engines,  using  that  term  to  denote  all  forms  of  internal 
combustible  engines,  in  which  the  propelling  force  is 
the  explosion  of  gaseous  or  vaporous  fuel  in  direct  con- 
tact with  a  piston  within  a  closed  cylinder.  This  group 
embraces  those  engines  using  ordinary  illuminating  gas, 
natural  gas,  and  gas  made  in  special  producers  in- 
stalled as  a  part  of  the  power  plant,  and  also  vaporised 
gasoline  or  kerosene.  This  form  of  power  for  the  first 
time  is  an  item  of  consequence  in  the  returns  of  the 
present  census,  and  the  very  large  increase  in  the 
horse-power  in  1900  as  compared  with  1890  indi- 
cates the  growing  popularity  of  this  class  of  motive 
power. 

"  In  1890  the  number  of  gas  engines  in  use  in  manufac- 
turing plants  was  not  reported,  but  their  total  power 
amounted  to  only  8,930  horse-power,  or  one-tenth  of  one 
per  cent  of  the  total  power  utilized  in  manufacturing 
operations.  In  1900,  however,  14,884  gas  engines  were 
reported,  with  a  total  of  143,850  horse-power,  or  1.3 
per  cent  of  the  total  power  used  for  manufacturing  pur- 
poses. This  increase  from  8,930  horse-power  to  143, 
850  horse-power,  a  gain  of  134,920  horse-power,  is  pro- 
portionately the  largest  increase  in  any  form  of  primary 
power  shown  by  a  comparison  of  the  figures  of  the 


THE   CONQUEST   OF   NATURE 

Eleventh  and  Twelfth  censuses,  amounting  to  1,510.9 
per  cent. 

"  Within  the  past  decade,  and  more  particularly 
during  the  past  five  years,  there  has  been  a  marked  in- 
crease in  the  use  of  this  power  in  industrial  establish- 
ments for  driving  machinery,  for  generating  electricity, 
and  for  other  kindred  uses.  At  the  same  time,  internal- 
combustion  engines  have  increased  in  popularity  for 
uses  apart  from  manufacturing,  and  the  amount  of  this 
kind  of  power  in  use  for  all  purposes  in  1900  was,  doubt- 
less, very  much  larger  than  indicated  by  the  figures 
relating  to  manufacturing  plants  alone. 

"The  average  horse-power  per  gas  engine  in  1900 
was  9.7  horse-power.  There  are  no  available  statis- 
tics upon  which  to  base  a  comparison  of  this  average 
with  the  average  for  1890,  but  it  is  doubtful  if  there  has 
been  any  very  material  change  in  ten  years;  for  while 
gas  engines  are  built  in  much  larger  sizes  than  ever 
before,  there  has  been  also  a  great  increase  in  the  num- 
ber of  small  engines  for  various  purposes. 

"The  large  increase  in  the  use  of  internal-combus- 
tion engines  has  been  due  to  the  rapid  improvements  that 
have  been  made  in  them,  their  increased  efficiency  and 
economy,  their  decreased  cost,  and  the  wider  range  of 
adaptability  that  has  been  made  practicable. 

"Steam  still  continues  to  be  preeminently  the  power 
of  greatest  importance,  and  the  census  returns  indicate 
that  the  proportion  of  steam  to  the  total  of  all  powers 
has  increased  very  largely  in  the  past  thirty  years.  In 
1870  steam  furnished  1,215,711  horse-power,  or  51.8 
per  cent  of  a  total  of  2,346,142;  in  1880  the  amount  of 


(iAS   AND   OIL   ENGINES 

steam  power  used  was  2,185,458  horse-power  out  of  a 
total  of  3,410,837,  or  64.1  per  cent;  in  1890  out  of  an 
aggregate  of  5,954,655  horse-power,  4,581,595,  or  76.9 
per  cent  was  steam;  while  in  1900  steam  figured  to  the 
extent  of  8,742,416  horse-power,  or  77.4  per  cent,  in  a 
total  of  11,300,081.  This  increase  in  thirty  years,  from 
51.8  per  cent  to  77.4  per  cent  of  the  total  power,  shows 
how  much  more  rapidly  the  use  of  steam  power  has 
increased  than  other  primary  sources  of  power. 

"The  tendency  toward  larger  units  in  the  use  of 
steam  power  is  shown  inadequately  by  the  increase  in 
the  average  horse-power  per  engine  from  39  horse- 
power in  1880,  to  51  horse-power  in  1890,  and  56  horse- 
power in  1900. 

"The  tendency  toward  great  operations  which  has 
been  such  a  conspicuous  feature  of  industrial  progress 
during  the  past  ten  years,  has  shown  itself  strikingly  in 
the  use  of  units  of  larger  capacity  in  nearly  every  form 
of  machinery,  and  nowhere  has  this  tendency  been  more 
marked  than  in  the  motive  power  by  which  the  machinery 
is  driven.  At  the  same  time  there  has  been  an  increase 
in  the  use  of  small  units,  which  tends  to  destroy  the  true 
tendency  in  steam  engineering  in  these  statistics.  For 
example,  a  steam  plant  consisting  of  one  or  more  units 
of  several  thousand  horse-power  may  also  embrace  a 
number  of  small  engines  of  only  a  few  horse-power  each, 
the  use  of  which  is  necessitated  by  the  magnitude  of  the 
plant,  for  the  operation  of  mechanical  stokers,  the 
driving  of  draft  fans,  coal  and  ash  conveyors,  and  other 
work  requiring  power  in  small  units.  On  this  account 
the  average  horse-power  of  steam  engines  in  use  at 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

different  census  periods  fails  to  afford  a  true  basis  for 
measuring  progress  toward  larger  units  during  the  past 
ten  years. 

"  Developments  of  the  past  few  years  in  the  distribu- 
tion of  power  by  the  use  of  electric  motors  have  served 
to  accelerate  the  tendency  toward  larger  steam  units  and 
the  elimination  of  small  engines  in  large  plants  and  to 
change  completely  the  conditions  just  described.  For 
example :  In  one  of  the  largest  power  plants  in  the  world, 
which  is  now  being  installed,  all  the  stokers,  blowers, 
conveyors,  and  other  auxiliary  machinery  are  to  be 
driven  by  electric  motors.  Such  rapidly  changing  con- 
ditions tend  to  invalidate  any  comparisons  of  statis- 
tical averages  deduced  from  figures  for  periods  even 
but  a  few  years  apart. 

"  Comparison  of  two  important  industries  will  il- 
lustrate the  foregoing.  The  average  horse-power 
of  the  steam  engine  used  in  the  cotton  mills  of  the 
United  States  in  1890  was  198,  and  in  1900  it  was  300. 

"In  the  iron  and  steel  industry  the  average  horse- 
power per  engine  in  1890  was  171,  and  in  1900  it  was 
235.  In  the  cotton  mills  the  use  of  single  large  units  of 
motive  power,  with  few  auxiliary  engines  of  small  capac- 
ity, gives  the  largest  horse-power  per  engine  of  any  in- 
dustry; while  in  the  iron  and  steel  industry  the  average 
of  the  motive  power  proper,  although  probably  larger 
than  in  the  manufacture  of  cotton  goods,  is  reduced  by 
the  large  number  of  small  engines  which  are  used  for 
auxiliary  purposes  in  every  iron  and  steel  plant." 

It  will  be  understood  that  the  object  of  exploding  the 
mixed  gases  in  the  oil  engine  is  to  produce  sudden  heat- 

[i44] 


GAS   AND   OIL   ENGINES 

ing  of  the  entire  gas.  There  is  no  reason  whatever  for 
introducing  the  gasoline  beyond  this.  Could  a  better 
method  of  heating  air  be  devised,  the  oil  might  be 
entirely  dispensed  with,  and  the  safety  of  the  apparatus 
enhanced,  as  well  as  the  economy  of  operation.  Efforts 
have  been  made  for  fifty  years  to  construct  a  hot-air 
engine  that  would  compete  with  steam  successfully. 
In  the  early  fifties,  as  already  noted,  Ericsson  showed  the 
feasibility  of  substituting  hot  air  for  steam,  but  although 
he  constructed  large  engines,  their  power  was  so  slight 
that  he  was  obliged  to  give  up  the  idea  of  competing 
with  steam,  and  to  use  his  engines  for  pumping  where 
very  small  power  was  required. 

The  great  difficulty  was  that  it  was  not  found  prac- 
ticable to  heat  the  air  rapidly.  All  subsequent  experi- 
menters have  met  with  the  same  difficulty  until  some- 
what recently.  It  is  now  claimed,  however,  that  a 
means  has  been  found  of  rapidly  heating  the  air,  and  it 
is  even  predicted  that  the  hot-air  engine  will  in  due 
course  entirely  supersede  the  steam  engine.  Mr.  G. 
Emil  Hesse,  in  an  article  in  The  American  Inventor,  for 
April  15,  1905,  describes  a  Svea  caloric  engine  as 
having  successfully  solved  the  problem  of  rapidly 
heating  air.  The  methods  consist  in  breaking  up  the 
air  into  thin  layers  and  passing  it  over  hot  plates,  where 
it  rapidly  absorbs  heat.  It  passes  from  the  heater  to  the 
power  cylinder  which  resembles  the  cylinder  of  a  steam 
engine;  thence  after  expanding  and  doing  its  work  it 
is  exhausted  into  the  atmosphere.  Large  engines  may 
use  the  same  air  over  and  over  again  under  pressure  of 
one  hundred  pounds  per  square  inch,  alternately  heat- 

VOL.  VI.  — 10  [  145  ] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

ing  and  cooling  it.  A  six  horse-power  engine  of  this 
type  is  said  to  have  a  cylinder  four  and  one-half  inches 
in  diameter  and  a  stroke  of  four  and  seven-eighth  inches, 
and  makes  four  hundred  and  fifty  revolutions  per  min- 
ute. The  heater  is  twenty  inches  in  diameter,  sixteen 
inches  long,  and  has  a  heating  surface  of  sixty  square 
feet.  The  total  weight  of  heater  and  engine  complete 
is  four  hundred  pounds  for  a  half  horse-power  Ericsson 
engine. 

"The  Svea  heater,"  says  Mr.  Hesse,  "absorbs  the 
heat  as  perfectly  as  an  ordinary  steam  boiler,  and  the 
heat-radiating  surface  of  both  heater  and  engine  is  not 
larger  than  that  of  a  steam  plant  of  the  same  power, 
thereby  placing  the  two  motors  on  the  same  basis,  as  far 
as  the  utilization  of  the  heat  in  the  fuel  itself  is  concerned. 

"The  advantage  which  every  hot-air  engine  has  over 
the  steam  engine  is  the  amount  of  heat  saved  in  the  va- 
porization of  the  water.  It  is  now  well  known  that  one 
gas  is  as  efficient  as  another  for  the  conversion  of  heat 
into  power.  Air  and  steam  at  100°  C.  are  consequently 
on  the  same  footing  and  ready  to  be  superheated.  The 
amount  of  heat  required  to  bring  the  two  gases  to  this 
temperature  is,  however,  very  different. 

"With  an  initial  temperature  of  10°  C.  for  both  air 
and  water,  we  find  that  one  kilogram  of  steam  requires 
9°  +  537  =  627  thermal  units,  and  one  kilogram  of  air 
0.24  X  90  =  21.6  thermal  units.  Some  heat  is  re- 
covered if  the  feed  water  is  heated  and  the  steam  con- 
densed, but  the  difference  is  still  so  great  as  to  altogether 
exclude  steam  as  a  competitor,  provided  air  can  be  as 
readily  handled. 


GAS   AND   OIL   ENGINES 

"Having  now  the  means  to  rapidly  heat  the  air,  the 
outlook  for  the  external-combustion  engine  is  certainly 
very  promising. 

"The  saving  of  more  than  half  the  coal  now  used  by 
the  steam  engine  will  be  of  tremendous  importance  to 
the  whole  world." 

To  what  extent  this  optimistic  prediction  will  be  veri- 
fied is  a  problem  for  the  future  to  decide. 


VIII 

THE  SMAi.lF.fiT   WORKERS 

IN  our  studies  of  the  steam  engine  and  gas  engine  we 
have  been  concerned  with  workers  of  infinitesimal 
size.  Yet,  if  we  are  to  believe  the  reports  of  the  mod- 
ern investigator,  the  molecules  of  steam  or  of  ignited 
gas  are  small  only  in  a  relative  sense,  and  there  is  a 
legion  of  workers  compared  with  which  the  molecules 
are  really  gigantic  in  size.    These  workers  are  the  atoms, 
and  the  yet  more  minute  particles  of  which,  according 
to    the  most    recent    theories,    they    are    themselves 
composed. 

These  smallest  conceivable  particles,  the  constitu- 
ents of  the  atoms,  are  called  electrons.  They  are  a  dis- 
covery of  the  physicists  of  the  most  recent  generation.  Ac- 
cording to  the  newest  theories  they  account  for  most — 
perhaps  for  all — of  the  inter-molecular  and  inter-atomic 
forces;  they  are  indeed  the  ultimate  repositories  of  those 
stores  of  energy  which  are  known  to  be  contained  in  all 
matter.  The  theories  are  not  quite  as  fully  developed 
as  could  be  wished,  but  it  would  appear  that  these 
minutest  particles,  the  electrons,  are  the  essential  con- 
stituents of  the  familiar  yet  wonderful  carrier  of  energy 
which  we  term  electricity.  In  considering  the  share  of 
electricity  in  the  world's  work,  therefore,  we  shall  do 
well  at  the  outset  to  put  ourselves  in  touch  with  recent 

[148] 


THE   SMALLEST   WORKERS 

views  as  to  the  nature  of  this  most  remarkable  of 
workers. 

On  every  side  in  this  modern  world  we  are  confronted 
by  this  strange  agent,  electricity.  The  word  stares  us  in 
the  face  on  every  printed  page.  The  thing  itself  is  mani- 
fest in  all  departments  of  our  e very-day  life.  You  go 
to  your  business  in  an  electric  car;  ascend  to  your  office 
in  an  electric  elevator;  utilize  electric  call-bells;  receive 
and  transmit  messages  about  the  world  and  beneath 
the  sea  by  electric  telegraph.  Your  doctor  treats  you 
with  an  electric  battery.  Your  dentist  employs  elec- 
tric drills  and  electric  furnaces.  You  ride  in  electric 
cabs;  eat  food  cooked  on  electric  stoves;  and  read 
with  the  aid  of  electric  light.  In  a  word,  the  manifes- 
tations of  electricity  are  so  obvious  on  every  side  that 
there  can  be  no  challenge  to  the  phrasing  which  has 
christened  this  the  Age  of  Electricity. 

But  what,  then,  is  this  strange  power  that  has  pro- 
duced all  these  multifarious  results?  It  would  be 
hard  to  propound  a  scientific  query  that  has  been  more 
variously  answered.  Ever  since  the  first  primitive  man 
observed  the  strange  effect  produced  by  rubbing  a 
piece  of  amber,  thoughtful  minds  must  have  striven  to 
explain  that  effect.  Ever  since  the  eighteenth-century 
scientist  began  his  more  elaborate  studies  of  electricity, 
theories  in  abundance  have  been  propounded.  And  yet 
we  are  not  quite  sure  that  even  the  science  of  to-day  can 
give  a  correct  answer  as  to  the  nature  of  electricity.  At 
the  very  least,  however,  it  is  able  to  give  some  interest- 
ing suggestions  which  seem  to  show  that  we  are  in  a  fair 
way  to  solve  this  world-old  mystery.  And,  curiously 

[149] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

enough,  the  very  newest  explanations  are  not  so  very 
far  away  from  some  eighteenth-century  theories  which 
for  a  long  time  were  looked  at  askance  if  not  altogether 
discarded.  In  particular,  the  theory  of  Benjamin 
Franklin,  which  considered  electricity  as  an  immaterial 
fluid  bearing  certain  curious  relations  to  tangible  matter, 
is  found  to  serve  singularly  well  as  an  aid  to  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  very  newest  experiments. 


FRANKLIN'S  ONE-FLUID  THEORY 

Such  being  the  case,  we  must  consider  this  theory  of 
Franklin's  somewhat  in  detail.  Perhaps  we  cannot  do 
better  than  state  the  theory  in  the  words  of  the  celebrated 
physicist,  Dr.  Thomas  Young,  as  given  in  his  work  on 
natural  philosophy,  published  in  1807.  By  quoting 
from  this  old  work  we  shall  make  sure  that  we  are  not 
reading  any  modern  interpretations  into  the  theory. 
"It  is  supposed,"  says  Young,  "that  a  peculiar  ethereal 
fluid  pervades  the  pores,  if  not  the  actual  substance  of 
the  earth  and  of  all  other  material  bodies,  passing 
through  them  with  more  or  less  facility,  according  to  their 
different  powers  of  conducting  it;  that  particles  of  this 
fluid  repel  each  other,  and  are  attracted  by  particles  of 
common  matter;  that  particles  of  common  matter  also 
repel  each  other;  and  that  these  attractions  and  repul- 
sions are  equal  among  themselves,  and  vary  inversely 
as  to  squares  of  the  distances  of  the  particles.  The 
effects  of  this  fluid  are  distinguished  from  those  of  all 
other  substances  by  an  attractive  or  repulsive  quality, 
which  it  appears  to  communicate  to  different  bodies, 


THE   SMALLEST   WORKERS 

and  which  differs  in  general  from  other  attractions  and 
repulsions  by  its  immediate  diminution  or  cessation 
when  the  bodies,  acting  on  each  other,  come  into  con- 
tact, or  are  touched  by  other  bodies.  ...  In  general, 
a  body  is  said  to  be  electrified  when  it  contains,  either 
as  a  whole  or  in  any  of  its  parts,  more  or  less  of  the  elec- 
tric fluid  than  is  natural  to  it  .  .  .In  this  common  neu- 
tral state  of  all  bodies,  the  electrical  fluid,  which  is 
everywhere  present,  is  so  distributed  that  the  various 
forces  hold  each  other  exactly  in  equilibrium  and  the 
separate  results  are  destroyed,  unless  we  choose  to  con- 
sider gravitation  itself  as  arising  from  a  comparatively 
slight  inequality  between  the  electrical  attractions  and 
repulsions." 

The  salient  and  striking  feature  of  this  theory,  it  will 
be  observed,  is  that  the  electrical  fluid,  under  normal 
conditions,  is  supposed  to  be  incorporated  everywhere 
with  the  substance  of  every  material  in  the  world.  It 
will  be  observed  that  nothing  whatever  is  postulated  as 
to  the  nature  or  properties  of  this  fluid  beyond  the  fact 
that  its  particles  repel  each  other  and  are  attracted  by 
the  particles  of  common  matter;  it  being  also  postulated 
that  the  particles  of  common  matter  likewise  repel  each 
other  under  normal  conditions. 

At  the  time  when  Franklin  propounded  his  theory, 
there  was  a  rival  theory  before  the  world,  which  has  con- 
tinued more  or  less  popular  ever  since,  and  which  is 
known  as  the  two-fluid  theory  of  electricity.  According 
to  this  theory,  there  are  two  uncreated  and  indestruct- 
ible fluids  which  produce  electrical  effects.  One  fluid 
may  be  called  positive,  the  other  negative.  The  par- 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

tides  of  the  positive  fluid  are  mutually  repellent,  as  also 
are  the  particles  of  the  negative  fluid,  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  positive  particles  attract  and  are  attracted  by 
negative  particles.  We  need  not  further  elaborate  the 
details  of  this  two-fluid  theory,  because  the  best  modern 
opinion  considers  it  less  satisfactory  than  Franklin's 
one-fluid  theory.  Meantime,  it  will  be  observed  that 
the  two  theories  have  much  in  common;  in  particular 
they  agree  in  the  essential  feature  of  postulating  an  in- 
visible something  which  is  not  matter,  and  which  has 
strange  properties  of  attraction  and  repulsion. 

These  properties  of  attraction  and  repulsion  con- 
stituted in  the  early  day  the  only  known  manifestations 
of  electricity;  and  the  same  properties  continue  to  hold 
an  important  place  in  modern  studies  of  the  subject. 
Electricity  is  so  named  simply  because  amber — the 
Latin  electrum — was  the  substance  which,  in  the  expe- 
rience of  the  ancients,  showed  most  conspicuously  the 
strange  property  of  attracting  small  bodies  after  being 
rubbed.  Modern  methods  of  developing  electricity 
are  extremely  diversified,  and  most  of  them  are  quite 
unsuggestive  of  the  rubbing  of  amber;  yet  nearly  all 
the  varied  manifestations  of  electricity  are  reducible,  in 
the  last  analysis,  to  attractions  and  repulsions  among 
the  particles  of  matter. 

As  to  the  alleged  immaterial  fluids  which,  according 
to  the  theories  just  mentioned,  make  up  the  real  sub- 
stance of  electricity,  it  was  perfectly  natural  that  they 
should  be  invented  by  the  physicists  of  the  elder  day. 
All  the  conceptions  of  the  human  mind  are  developed 
through  contact  with  the  material  world;  and  it  is 


THE   SMALLEST   WORKERS 

extremely  difficult  to  get  away,  even  in  theory,  from  tan- 
gible realities.  When  the  rubbed  amber  acquires  the 
property  of  drawing  the  pith  ball  to  it,  we  naturally 
assume  that  some  change  has  taken  place  in  the  con- 
dition of  the  amber;  and  since  the  visible  particles  of 
amber  appear  to  be  unchanged — since  its  color,  weight, 
and  friability  are  unmodified — it  seems  as  if  some  im- 
material quality  must  have  been  added  to,  or  taken  from 
it.  And  it  was  natural  for  the  eighteenth-century 
physicist  to  think  of  this  immaterial  something  as  a 
fluid,  because  he  was  accustomed  to  think  of  light,  heat, 
and  magnetism  as  being  also  immaterial  fluids.  He  did 
not  know,  as  we  now  do,  that  what  we  call  heat  is 
merely  the  manifestation  of  varying  "modes"  of  motion 
among  the  particles  of  matter,  and  that  what  we  call 
light  is  not  a  thing  sui  generis,  but  is  merely  our  recog- 
nition of  waves  of  certain  length  in  the  all-pervading 
ether.  The  wave  theory  of  light  had,  indeed,  been  pro- 
pounded here  and  there  by  a  philosopher,  but  the  theory 
which  regarded  light  as  a  corpuscular  emanation  had  the 
support  of  no  less  an  authority  than  Sir  Isaac  Newton, 
and  he  was  a  bold  theorist  that  dared  challenge  it. 
When  Franklin  propounded  his  theory  of  electricity, 
therefore,  his  assumption  of  the  immaterial  fluid  was 
thoroughly  in  accord  with  the  physical  doctrines  of  the 
time. 

MODERN  VIEWS 

But  about  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century 
the  doctrine  of  imponderable  fluids  as  applied  to  light 
and  heat  was  actively  challenged  by  Young  and  Fresnel 


THE   CONQUEST   OF   NATURE 

and  by  Count  Rumford  and  Humphry  Davy  and  their 
followers,  and  in  due  course  the  new  doctrines  of  light 
and  heat  were  thoroughly  established.  In  the  light  of  the 
new  knowledge,  the  theory  of  the  electric  fluid  or  fluids 
seemed,  therefore,  much  less  plausible.  Whereas  the 
earlier  physicists  had  merely  disputed  as  to  whether  we 
must  assume  the  existence  of  two  electrical  fluids  or 
of  only  one,  it  now  began  to  be  questioned  whether  we 
need  assume  the  existence  of  any  electrical  fluid  what- 
ever. The  physicists  of  about  the  middle  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  developed  the  wonderful  doctrine  of 
conservation  of  energy,  according  to  which  one  form  of 
force  may  be  transformed  into  another,  but  without  the 
possibility  of  adding  to,  or  subtracting  from,  the  orig- 
inal sum  total  of  energy  in  the  universe.  It  became 
evident  that  electrical  force  must  conform  to  this  law. 
Finally,  Clerk-Maxwell  developed  his  wonderful  elec- 
tromagnetic theory,  according  to  which  waves  of  light 
are  of  electrical  origin.  The  work  of  Maxwell  was 
followed  up  by  the  German  Hertz,  whose  experiments 
produced  those  electromagnetic  waves  which,  differing 
in  no  respect  except  in  their  length  from  the  waves  of 
light,  have  become  familiar  to  everyone  through  their 
use  in  wireless  telegraphy.  All  these  experiments 
showed  a  close  relation  between  electrical  phenomena, 
and  the  phenomena  of  light  and  of  radiant  heat,  and  a 
long  step  seemed  to  be  taken  toward  the  explanation 
of  the  nature  of  electricity. 

The  new  studies  associated  electricity  with  the  ether, 
rather  than  with  the  material  substance  of  the  electrified 
body.  Many  experiments  seemed  to  show  that  electric- 

[154] 


THE   SMALLEST   WORKERS 

ity  in  motion  traverses  chiefly  the  surface  of  the  conduc- 
tor, and  it  came  to  be  believed  that  the  essential  feature 
of  the  " current"  consists  of  a  condition  of  strain  or 
stress  in  the  ether  surrounding  a  conductor,  rather  than 
of  any  change  in  the  conductor  itself.  This  idea,  which 
is  still  considered  valid,  has  the  merit  of  doing  away  with 
the  thought  of  action  at  a  distance — the  idea  that  was  so 
repugnant  to  the  mind  of  Faraday. 

So  far  so  good.  But  what  determines  the  ether  strain  ? 
There  is  surely  something  that  is  not  matter  and  is  not 
ether.  What  is  this  something?  The  efforts  of  many 
of  the  most  distinguished  experimenters  have  in  recent 
years  been  directed  toward  the  solution  of  that  ques- 
tion ;  and  these  efforts,  thanks  to  the  new  methods  and 
new  discoveries,  have  met  with  a  considerable  measure 
of  success.  I  must  not  attempt  here  to  follow  out  the 
channels  of  discovery,  but  must  content  myself  with 
stating  briefly  the  results.  We  shall  have  occasion  to 
consider  some  further  details  as  to  the  methods  in  a 
later  chapter. 

Briefly,  then,  it  is  now  generally  accepted,  at  least  as 
a  working  hypothesis,  that  every  atom  of  matter — be  it 
oxygen,  hydrogen,  gold,  iron,  or  what  not — carries  a 
charge  of  electricity,  which  is  probably  responsible  for 
all  the  phenomena  that  the  atom  manifests.  This 
charge  of  electricity  may  be  positive  or  negative,  or  it 
may  be  neutral,  by  which  is  meant  that  the  positive  and 
negative  charges  may  just  balance.  If  the  positive 
charge  has  definite  carriers,  these  are  unknown  except  in 
association  with  the  atom  itself;  but  the  negative  charge, 
on  the  other  hand,  is  carried  by  minute  particles  to 

[155] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

which  the  name  electron  (or  corpuscle)  has  been  given, 
each  of  which  is  about  one  thousand  times  smaller  than 
a  hydrogen  atom,  and  each  of  which  carries  uni- 
formly a  unit  charge  of  negative  electricity. 

Electrons  are  combined,  in  what  may  be  called 
planetary  systems,  in  the  substance  of  the  atom;  in- 
deed, it  is  not  certain  that  the  atom  consists  of  any- 
thing else  but  such  combinations  of  electrons,  held  to- 
gether by  the  inscrutable  force  of  positive  electricity. 
Some,  at  least,  of  the  electrons  within  the  atom  are 
violently  active — perhaps  whirling  in  planetary  orbits, — 
and  from  time  to  time  one  or  more  electrons  may  escape 
from  the  atomic  system.  In  thus  escaping  an  electron 
takes  away  its  charge  of  negative  electricity,  and  the 
previously  neutral  atom  becomes  positively  electrified. 
Meanwhile  the  free  electron  may  hurtle  about  with  its 
charge  of  negative  electricity,  or  may  combine  with 
some  neutral  atom  and  thus  give  to  that  neutral  atom  a 
negative  charge.  Under  certain  conditions  myriads  of 
these  electrons,  escaped  thus  from  their  atomic  systems, 
may  exist  in  the  free  state.  For  example,  the  so-called 
beta  (/?)  rays  of  radium  and  its  allies  consist  of  such 
electrons,  which  are  being  hurtled  off  into  space  with 
approximately  the  speed  of  light.  The  cathode  rays, 
of  which  we  have  heard  so  much  in  recent  years,  also 
consist  of  free  electrons. 

But,  for  that  matter,  all  currents  of  electricity  what- 
ever, according  to  this  newest  theory,  consist  simply  of 
aggregations  of  free  electrons.  According  to  theory,  if 
the  electrons  are  in  uniform  motion  they  produce  the 
phenomena  of  constant  currents  of  electricity;  if  they 


THE   SMALLEST  WORKERS 

move  non-uniformly  they  produce  electromagnetic 
phenomena  (for  example,  the  waves  used  in  wireless 
telegraphy);  if  they  move  with  periodic  motion  they 
produce  the  waves  of  light.  Meanwhile  stationary  ag- 
gregations of  electrons  produce  the  so-called  electro- 
static phenomena.  All  the  various  ether  waves  are  thus 
believed  to  be  produced  by  changes  in  the  motions  of 
the  electrons.  A  very  sudden  stoppage,  such  as  is  pro- 
duced when  the  cathode  ray  meets  an  impassable 
barrier,  produces  the  X-ray. 

With  these  explanations  in  mind,  it  will  be  obvious 
how  closely  this  newest  interpretation  of  electricity 
corresponds  in  its  general  features  with  the  old  one- 
fluid  theory  of  Franklin.  The  efforts  of  the  present- 
day  physicist  have  resulted  essentially  in  an  analysis  of 
Franklin's  fluid,  which  gives  to  this  fluid  an  atomic  struc- 
ture. The  new  theory  takes  a  step  beyond  the  old  in 
suggesting  the  idea  that  the  same  particles  which  make 
up  the  electric  fluid  enter  also  into  the  composition — 
perhaps  are  the  sole  physical  constituents — of  every 
material  substance  as  well.  But  while  the  new  theory 
thus  extends  the  bounds  of  our  vision,  we  must  not  claim 
that  it  fully  solves  the  mystery.  We  can  visualize  the 
ultimate  constituent  of  electricity  as  an  electron  one 
thousand  times  smaller  than  the  hydrogen  atom,  which 
has  mass  and  inertia,  and  which  possesses  powers  of 
attraction  and  repulsion.  But  as  to  the  actual  nature 
of  this  ultimate  particle  we  are  still  in  the  dark.  There 
are,  however,  some  interesting  theories  as  to  its  char- 
acter, which  should  claim  at  least  incidental  attention. 

We  have  all  along  spoken  of  the  electron  as  an  ex- 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

ceedingly  minute  particle,  stating  indeed,  that  in  actual 
size  it  is  believe'd  to  be  about  one  thousand  times  smaller 
than  the  hydrogen  atom,  which  hitherto  had  been  con- 
sidered the  smallest  thing  known  to  science.  But  we 
have  now  to  offer  a  seemingly  paradoxical  modification  of 
this  statement.  It  is  true  that  in  mass  or  weight  the 
electron  is  a  thousand  times  smaller  than  the  hydrogen 
atom,  yet  at  the  same  time  it  may  be  conceived  that 
the  limits  of  space  which  the  electron  occupies  are 
indefinitely  large.  In  a  word,  it  is  conceived  (by 
Professor  J.  J.  Thomson,  who  is  the  chief  path-breaker 
in  this  field)  that  the  electron  is  in  reality  a  sort  of 
infinitesimal  magnet,  having  two  poles  joined  by  lines  or 
tubes  of  magnetic  force  (the  so-called  Faraday  tube), 
which  lines  or  tubes  are  of  indefinite  number  and  ex- 
tent; precisely  as,  on  a  large  scale,  our  terrestrial  globe 
is  such  a  magnet  supplied  with  such  an  indefinite 
magnetic  field.  That  the  mass  of  the  electron  is  so 
infinitesimally  small  is  explained  on  the  assumption 
that  .this  mass  is  due  to  a  certain  amount  of  universal 
ether  which  is  bound  up  with  the  tubes  where  they  are 
thickest;  close  to  the  point  in  space  from  which  they 
radiate,  which  point  in  space  constitutes  the  focus  of 
the  tangible  electron. 

It  will  require  some  close  thinking  on  the  part  of  the 
reader  to  gain  a  clear  mental  picture  of  this  conception 
of  the  electron;  but  the  result  is  worth  the  effort. 
When  you  can  clearly  conceive  all  matter  as  composed 
of  electrons,  each  one  of  which  cobwebs  space  with  its 
system  of  magnetic  tubes,  you  will  at  least  have  a 
tangible  picture  in  mind  of  a  possible  explanation  of 

[158] 


THE   SMALLEST   WORKERS 

the  forces  of  cohesion  and  gravitation — in  fact,  of  all 
the  observed  cases  of  seeming  action  at  a  distance. 
If  at  first  blush  the  conception  of  space  as  filled  with  an 
interminable  meshwork  of  lines  of  force  seems  to  involve 
us  in  a  hopeless  mental  tangle,  it  should  be  recalled 
that  the  existence  of  an  infinity  of  such  magnetic  lines 
joining  the  poles  of  the  earth  may  be  demonstrated  at 
any  time  by  the  observation  of  a  compass,  yet  that  these 
do  not  in  any  way  interfere  with  the  play  of  other 
familiar  forces.  There  is  nothing  unthinkable,  then, 
in  the  supposition  that  there  are  myriads  of  minor 
magnetic  centres  exerting  lesser  degrees  of  force 
throughout  the  same  space. 

All  that  can  be  suggested  as  to  the  actual  nature  of  the 
Faraday  tubes  is  that  they  perhaps  represent  a  condi- 
tion of  the  ether.  This,  obviously,  is  heaping  hypothesis 
upon  hypothesis.  Yet  it  should  be  understood  that  the 
hypothesis  of  the  magnetic  electron  as  the  basis  of 
matter,  has  received  an  amount  of  experimental  sup- 
port that  has  raised  it  at  least  to  the  level  of  a  working 
theory.  Should  that  theory  be  demonstrated  to  be 
true,  we  shall  apparently  be  forced  to  conclude  not 
merely  that  electricity  is  present  everywhere  in  nature, 
but  that,  in  the  last  analysis,  there  is  absolutely  no 
tangible  thing  other  than  electricity  in  all  the  universe. 

HOW  ELECTRICITY  IS  DEVELOPED 

Turning  from  this  very  startling  theoretical  con- 
clusion to  the  practicalities,  let  us  inquire  how  electricity 
—which  apparently  exists,  as  it  were,  in  embryo  every- 


'THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

where — can  be  made  manifest.  In  so  doing  we  shall 
discover  that  there  are  varying  types  of  electricity,  yet 
that  these  have  a  singular  uniformity  as  to  their  essen- 
tial properties.  As  usually  divided — and  the  classifica- 
tion answers  particularly  well  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
worker — electricity  is  spoken  of  as  either  statical  or 
dynamical.  The  words  themselves  are  suggestive  of 
the  essential  difference  between  the  two  types.  Statical 
electricity  produces  very  striking  manifestations.  We 
have  already  spoken  of  it  as  theoretically  due  to  the 
conditions  of  the  electrons  at  rest.  It  must  be  under- 
stood, however,  that  the  statical  electricity  will,  if  given 
opportunity,  seek  to  escape  from  any  given  location  to 
another  location,  under  certain  conditions,  somewhat 
as  water  which  is  stored  up  in  a  reservoir  will,  when 
opportunity  offers,  flow  down  to  a  lower  level.  The  pent- 
up  static  electricity  has,  like  the  water  in  the  reservoir, 
a  store  of  potential  energy.  The  physicist  speaks  of  it  as 
having  high  tension.  In  passing  to  a  condition  of  lower 
tension,  the  statical  electricity  may  give  up  a  large  por- 
tion of  its  energy. 

If,  for  example,  on  a  winter  day  in  a  cold  climate,  you 
walk  briskly  along  a  wool  carpet,  the  friction  of  your 
feet  with  the  carpet  generates  a  store  of  statical  electric- 
ity, which  immediately  passes  over  the  entire  surface  of 
your  body.  If  now  you  touch  another  person  or  a 
metal  conductor,  such  as  a  steam  radiator  or  a  gas  pipe, 
a  brilliant  spark  jumps  from  your  finger,  and  you  ex- 
perience what  is  spoken  of  as  an  electrical  shock. 
If  the  day  is  very  cold,  and  the  air  consequently  very 
dry,  and  if  you  will  take  pains  to  rub  your  feet  vigor- 

[160] 


THE   SMALLEST  WORKERS 

ously  or  slide  along  the  carpet,  you  may  light  a  gas  jet 
with  the  spark  which  will  spring  from  your  finger  to 
the  tip  of  the  jet,  provided  the  latter  is  of  metal  or  other 
conducting  substance;  and  even  if  you  attempt  to 
avoid  the  friction  between  your  feet  and  the  carpet  as 
much  as  possible,  you  may  be  constantly  annoyed  by 
receiving  a  shock  whenever  you  touch  any  conductor, 
since,  in  spite  of  your  efforts,  the  necessary  amount  of 
friction  sufficed  to  generate  a  store  of  statical  electricity. 

An  illustration  of  the  development  of  this  same  form 
of  electricity,  on  a  large  scale,  is  supplied  by  the  fa- 
miliar statical  machine,  which  consists  of  a  large  circle  of 
glass,  so  adjusted  that  it  may  be  revolved  rapidly  against 
a  suitable  friction  producer.  With  such  a  machine  a 
powerful  statical  current  is  produced,  capable  of  gen- 
erating a  spark  that  may  be  many  inches  or  even  several 
feet  in  length, — a  veritable  flash  of  lightning.  It  is 
with  such  a  supply  of  electricity  conducted  through  a 
vacuum  tube  that  the  cathode  ray  and  the  Roentgen 
ray  are  produced. 

Such  effects  as  this  suggest  considerable  capacity  for 
doing  work.  Yet  in  reality,  notwithstanding  the  very 
sporadical  character  of  the  result,  the  quantity  of 
electricity  involved  in  such  a  statical  current  may  be 
very  slight  indeed.  Even  a  lightning  flash  is  held  to 
represent  a  comparatively  small  amount  of  electricity. 
Faraday  calculated  that  the  amount  of  electricity  that 
could  be  generated  from  a  single  drop  of  water,  through 
chemical  manipulation,  would  suffice  to  supply  the 
lightning  for  a  fair-sized  thunder-storm.  Nevertheless 
the  destructive  work  that  may  be  done  by  a  flash  of 

VOL.  VI.— II  [  l6l  ] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

lightning  may  be  considerable,  as  everyone  is  aware. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  while  the  visible  effect  of  a  stroke 
of  lightning  on  a  tree  trunk,  for  example,  makes  it 
seem  a  powerful  agency,  yet  the  actual  capacity  to  do 
work — the  power  to  move  considerable  masses  of  mat- 
ter— is  extremely  limited.  The  effect  on  a  tree  trunk, 
it  will  be  recalled,  usually  consists  of  nothing  more  than 
the  stripping  off  of  a  channel  of  bark.  In  other  words, 
the  working  energy  contained  in  a  seemingly  powerful 
supply  of  statical  electricity  commonly  plays  but  an 
insignificant  part. 

The  working  agent,  and  therefore  the  form  of  elec- 
tricity which  concerns  us  in  the  present  connection,  is 
the  dynamical  current.  This  may  be  generated  in 
various  ways,  but  in  practice  these  are  chiefly  reducible 
to  two.  One  of  these  depends  upon  chemical  action, 
the  other  upon  the  inter-relations  of  mechanical  mo- 
tion and  magnetic  lines  of  force.  A  common  illustra- 
tion of  the  former  is  supplied  by  the  familiar  voltaic 
or  galvanic  battery.  The  electromagnetic  form  has  been 
rendered  even  more  familiar  in  recent  times  by  the 
dynamo.  This  newest  and  most  powerful  of  workers 
will  claim  our  attention  in  detail  in  the  succeeding 
chapter.  Our  present  consideration  will  be  directed 
to  the  older  method  of  generating  the  electric  current 
as  represented  by  the  voltaic  cell. 

THE  WORK   OF  THE  DYNAMICAL  CURRENT 

Let  us  draw  our  illustration  from  a  familiar  source. 
Even  should  your  household  otherwise  lack  electrical 


THE   SMALLEST   WORKERS 

appliances,  you  are  sure  to  have  an  electric  call-bell. 
The  generator  of  the  electric  current,  which  is  stored 
away  in  some  out-of-the-way  corner,  is  probably  a 
small  so-called  " dry-cell"  which  you  could  readily 
carry  around  in  your  pocket;  or  it  may  consist  of  a 
receptacle  holding  a  pint  or  two  of  liquid  in  which  some 
metal  plates  are  immersed.  Such  an  apparatus  seems 
scarcely  more  than  a  toy  when  we  contrast  it  with  the 
gigantic  dynamos  of  the  power-house;  yet,  within  the 
limits  of  its  capacities,  one  is  as  surely  a  generator  of 
electricity  as  the  other.  If  we  are  to  accept  the  latest 
theory,  the  electrical  current  which  flows  from  this  tiny 
cell  is  precisely  the  same  in  kind  as  that  which 
flows  from  the  five-thousand-horse-power  dynamo. 
The  difference  is  only  one  of  quantity. 

To  understand  the  operation  of  this  common  house- 
hold appliance  we  must  bear  in  mind  two  or  three 
familiar  experimental  facts  in  reference  to  the  action 
of  the  voltaic  cell.  Briefly,  such  a  cell  consists  of  two 
plates  of  metal — for  example,  one  of  copper  and  the 
other  of  zinc — with  a  connecting  medium,  which  is 
usually  a  liquid,  but  which  may  be  a  piece  of  moistened 
cloth  or  blotting-paper.  So  long  as  the  two  plates  of 
metal  are  not  otherwise  connected  there  is  no  electricity 
in  evidence,  but  when  the  two  are  joined  by  any  metal 
conductor,  as,  for  example,  a  piece  of  wire — thus,  in 
common  parlance,  " completing  the  circuit" — a  current 
of  electricity  flows  about  this  circuit,  passing  from  the 
first  metal  plate  to  the  second,  through  the  liquid  and 
back  from  the  second  plate  to  the  first  through  the  piece 
of  wire.  The  wire  may  be  of  any  length.  In  the  case  of 

[163] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

your  call-bell,  for  example,  the  wire  circuit  extends  to 
your  door,  and  is  there  broken,  shutting  off  the  current. 

When  you  press  the  button  you  connect  the  broken 
ends  of  the  wire,  thus  closing  the  circuit,  as  the  saying  is, 
and  the  re-established  current,  acting  through  a  little 
electromagnet,  rings  the  bell.  In  another  case,  the  wire 
may  be  hundreds  of  miles  in  length,  to  serve  the  purposes 
of  the  telegrapher,  who  trancmits  his  message  by  open- 
ing and  closing  the  circuit,  precisely  as  you  operate  your 
door-bell.  For  long-distance  telegraphy,  of  course, 
large  cells  are  required,  and  numbers  of  them  are  linked 
together  to  give  a  cumulative  effect,  making  a  strong 
current;  but  there  is  no  new  principle  involved. 

The  simplest  study  of  this  interesting  mechanism 
makes  it  clear  that  the  cell  is  the  apparatus  primarily 
involved  in  generating  the  electric  current;  yet  it  is 
equally  obvious  that  the  connecting  wire  plays  an  im- 
portant part,  since,  as  we  have  seen,  when  the  wire  is 
broken  there  is  no  current  in  evidence.  Now,  accord- 
ing to  the  electron  theory,  as  previously  outlined,  the 
electric  current  consists  of  an  actual  flow  along  the  wire 
of  carriers  of  electricity  which  are  unable  to  make  their 
way  except  where  a  course  is  provided  for  them  by 
what  is  called  a  conductor.  Dry  air,  for  example,  is,  un- 
der ordinary  circumstances,  quite  impervious  to  them. 
This  means,  then,  that  the  electrons  flow  freely  along 
the  wire  when  it  is  continuous,  but  that  they  are  power- 
less to  proceed  when  the  wire  is  cut.  When  you  push 
the  button  of  your  call-bell,  therefore,  you  are  virtually 
closing  the  switch  which  enables  the  electrons  to  proceed 
on  their  interrupted  journey. 

[164] 


THE  SMALLEST  WORKERS 

THEORIES   OF    ELECTRICAL    ACTION 

But  all  this,  of  course,  leaves  quite  untouched  the 
question  of  the  origin  of  the  electrons  themselves. 
That  these  go  hurtling  from  one  plate  or  pole  of  the  bat- 
tery to  the  other,  along  the  wire,  we  can  understand  at 
least  as  a  working  theory;  that,  furthermore,  the  elec- 
trons have  their  origin  either  in  the  metal  plates  or  in 
the  liquid  that  connects  them,  seems  equally  obvious; 
but  how  shall  we  account  for  their  development?  It 
is  here  that  the  chemist  with  his  atomic  theory  of  matter 
comes  to  our  aid.  He  assures  us  that  all  matter  consists 
in  the  last  analysis  of  excessively  minute  particles, 
and  that  these  particles  are  perpetually  in  motion. 
They  unite  with  one  another  to  form  so-called  molecules, 
but  they  are  perpetually  breaking  away  from  such 
unions,  even  though  they  re-establish  them  again.  Such 
activities  of  the  atoms  take  place  even  in  solids,  but  they 
are  greatly  enhanced  when  any  substance  passes  from 
the  solid  into  the  liquid  state. 

When,  for  example,  a  lump  of  salt  is  dissolved  in 
water,  the  atoms  of  sodium  and  of  chlorine  which 
joined  together  make  up  the  molecules  of  salt  are  held 
in  much  looser  bondage  than  they  were  while  the  salt 
was  in  a  dry  or  crystalline  form.  Could  we  magnify 
the  infinitesimal  particles  sufficiently  to  make  them 
visible  we  should  probably  see  large  numbers  of  the 
molecules  being  dissociated,  the  liberated  atoms  mov- 
ing about  freely  for  an  instant  and  then  reuniting  with 
other  atoms.  Thus  at  any  given  instant  our  solution  of 
salt  would  contain  numerous  free  atoms  of  sodium  and 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

of  chlorine,  although  we  are  justified  in  thinking  of  this 
substance  as  a  whole  as  composed  of  sodium-chlorine 
molecules.  It  is  only  by  thus  visualizing  the  activity  of 
the  atoms  in  a  solution  that  we  are  able  to  provide  even 
a  thinkable  hypothesis  as  to  the  development  of  elec- 
tricity in  the  voltaic  cell. 

What  puts  us  on  the  track  of  the  explanation  we  are 
seeking  is  the  fact  that  the  diverse  atoms  are  known 
to  have  different  electrical  properties.  In  our  voltaic 
cell,  for  example,  sodium  atoms  would  collect  at  one 
pole  and  chlorine  atoms  at  the  other.  Humphry  Davy 
discovered  this  fact  in  the  early  days  of  electro-chemistry, 
just  about  a  century  ago.  He  spoke  of  the  sodium 
atom  as  electro-positive,  and  of  the  chlorine  atom  as  elec- 
tro-negative, and  he  attempted  to  explain  all  chemical 
affinity  as  merely  due  to  the  mutual  attraction  between 
positively  and  negatively  electrified  atoms.  The  modern 
theorist  goes  one  step  farther,  and  explains  the  negative 
properties  of  the  chlorine  atom  by  assuming  the  pres- 
ence of  one  negative  electron  or  electricity  in  excess  of 
the  neutralizing  charge.  The  assumption  is,  that  the 
sodium  atom  has  lost  this  negative  electron  and  thus  has 
become  positively  electrified.  The  chlorine  atom,  har- 
boring the  fugitive  electron,  becomes  negatively  elec- 
trified. Hence  the  two  atoms  are  attracted  toward  op- 
posite poles  of  the  cell. 

This  disunion  of  atoms,  be  it  understood,  must  be 
supposed  to  take  place  in  the  case  of  any  solution  of 
common  salt,  whether  it  rests  in  an  ordinary  cup  or 
forms  a  part  of  the  ocean.  Here  we  have,  then,  material 
for  the  generation  of  the  electrical  current,  if  some 

[iff] 


THE   SMALLEST   WORKERS 

means  could  be  found  to  induce  the  chlorine  atom  to 
give  up  the  surplus  electron  which  from  time  to  time  it 
carries.  And  this  means  is  provided  when  two  pieces  of 
metal  of  different  kinds,  united  with  a  metal  conductor, 
are  immersed  in  the  liquid.  Then  it  comes  to  pass  that 
the  electrons  associated  with  the  chlorine  atoms  that 
chance  to  lie  in  contact  with  one  of  these  plates  of  metal, 
find  in  this  metal  an  avenue  of  escape.  They  rush  off 
eagerly  along  the  metal  and  the  connecting  wire,  and  in 
so  doing  establish  a  current  which  acts — if  we  may 
venture  a  graphic  analogy  from  an  allied  field  of  physics 
— as  a  sort  of  suction,  attracting  other  chlorine  atoms 
from  the  body  of  the  liquid  against  the  metal  plate  that 
they  also  may  discharge  their  electrons.  In  other  words, 
the  electrical  current  passes  through  the  liquid  as  well 
as  through  the  outside  wire,  thus  completing  the 
circuit. 

According  to  this  theory,  then,  the  electrical  energy 
in  evidence  in  the  current  from  the  voltaic  cell,  is  drawn 
from  a  store  of  potential  energy  in  the  atoms  of  matter 
composing  the  liquid  in  the  cell.  In  practice,  as  is  well 
known,  the  liquid  used  is  one  that  affects  one  of  the 
metal  poles  more  actively  than  the  other,  insuring 
vigorous  chemical  activity.  But  the  principle  of  atomic 
and  electrical  dissociation  just  outlined  is  the  one  in- 
volved, according  to  theory,  in  every  voltaic  cell,  what- 
ever the  particular  combination  of  metals  and  liquids 
of  which  it  is  composed.  It  should  be  added,  however, 
that  while  we  are  thus  supplied  with  a  thinkable 
explanation  of  the  origin  of  this  manifestation  of 
electrical  energy,  no  explanation  is  forthcoming,  here 

[167] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

any  more  than  in  the  case  of  the  dynamo,  as  to  why  the 
electrons  rush  off  in  a  particular  direction  and  thus 
establish  an  electrical  current.  Perhaps  we  should  re- 
call that  the  very  existence  of  this  current  has  at  times 
been  doubted.  Quite  recently,  indeed,  it  has  been  held 
that  the  seeming  current  consists  merely  of  a  condi- 
tion of  strain  or  displacement  of  the  ether.  But  we  are 
here  chiefly  concerned  with  the  electron  theory,  ac- 
cording to  which,  as  we  have  all  along  noted,  the  seem- 
ing current  is  an  actual  current;  the  ether  strain,  if 
such  exists,  being  due  to  the  passage  of  the  electrons. 

PRACTICAL  USES  OF  ELECTRICITY 

Various  effects  of  the  current  of  electrons  have  been 
hinted  at  above.  Considered  in  detail,  the  possible  ways 
in  which  these  currents  may  be  utilized  are  multifarious. 
Yet,  they  may  be  all  roughly  classified  into  three 
divisions  as  follows: 

First,  cases  in  which  the  current  of  electricity  is  used 
to  transmit  energy  from  one  place  to  another,  and  re- 
produce it  in  the  form  of  molar  motion.  The  dynamo, 
in  its  endless  applications,  illustrates  one  phase  of  such 
transportation  of  energy;  and  the  call-bell,  the  telegraph, 
and  the  telephone  represent  another  phase.  In  one 
case  a  relatively  large  quantity  of  electricity  is  necessary, 
in  the  other  case  a  small  quantity;  but  the  principle  in- 
volved— that  of  electric  and  magnetic  induction — is  the 
same  in  each. 

The  second  method  is  that  in  which  the  current, 
generated  by  either  a  dynamo  or  a  battery  of  voltaic 

[168] 


THE   SMALLEST   WORKERS 

cells,  is  made  to  encounter  a  relatively  resistant  medium 
in  the  course  of  its  flow  along  the  conducting  circuit. 
Such  resistance  leads  to  the  production  of  active  vi- 
brations among  the  particles  of  the  resisting  medium, 
producing  the  phenomena  of  heat  and,  if  the  activity 
is  sufficient,  the  phenomena  of  light  also.  It  will  thus 
appear  that  in  this  class  of  cases,  as  in  the  other,  there 
is  an  actual  re-transformation  of  electrical  energy  into 
the  energy  of  motion,  only  in  this  case  the  motion  is 
that  of  molecules  and  not  of  larger  bodies.  The  prin- 
ciple is  utilized  in  the  electrical  heater,  with  which  our 
electric  street-cars  are  commonly  provided,  and  which  is 
making  its  way  in  the  household  for  purposes  of  general 
heating  and  of  cooking.  It  is  utilized  also  in  various 
factories,  where  the  very  high  degree  of  heat  attainable 
with  the  electrical  furnace  is  employed  to  produce  chem- 
ical dissociation  and  facilitate  chemical  combinations. 
By  this  means,  for  example,  a  compound  of  carbon  and 
silicon,  which  is  said  to  be  the  hardest  known  substance, 
except  the  diamond,  is  produced  in  commercial  quanti- 
ties. A  familiar  household  illustration  of  the  use  of 
this  principle  is  furnished  by  the  electric  light.  The  car- 
bon filament  in  the  electric  bulb  furnishes  such  resist- 
ance to  the  electric  current  that  its  particles  are  set  vio- 
lently aquiver.  Under  ordinary  conditions  the  oxygen 
of  the  air  would  immediately  unite  with  the  carbon 
particles,  volatilizing  them,  and  thus  instantly  destroy- 
ing the  filament;  but  the  vacuum  bulb  excludes  the  air, 
and  thus  gives  relative  permanency  to  the  fragile  thread. 
The  third  class  of  cases  in  which  the  electric  current 
is  commercially  utilized  is  that  in  which  the  transforma- 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

tions  it  effects  are  produced  in  solutions  comparable  to 
those  of  the  voltaic  cell,  the  principles  involved  being  those 
pointed  out  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  present  chapter. 
By  this  means  a  metal  may  be  deposited  in  a  pure  state 
upon  the  surface  of  another  metal  made  to  act  as  a  pole 
to  the  battery;  as,  for  example,  when  forks,  spoons,  and 
other  utensils  of  cheap  metals  are  placed  in  a  solution 
of  a  silver  compound,  and  thus  electroplated  with  silver. 
To  produce  the  powerful  effects  necessary  in  the  various 
commercial  applications  of  this  principle,  the  poles  of  the 
voltaic  cell — which  cell  may  become  in  practice  a  large 
tank — are  connected  with  the  current  supplied  by  a 
dynamo.  Various  chemical  plants  at  Niagara  utilize 
portions  of  the  currents  from  the  great  generators  there 
in  this  way.  Another  familiar  illustration  of  the  prin- 
ciple is  furnished  by  the  copper  electroplates  from 
which  most  modern  books  are  printed. 

It  appears,  then,  that  all  the  multifarious  uses  of 
electricity  in  modern  life  are  reducible  to  a  few  simple 
principles  of  action,  just  as  electricity  itself  is  reduced, 
according  to  the  analysis  of  the  modern  physicist,  to  the 
activities  of  the  elementary  electron.  There  is  nothing 
anomalous  in  this,  however,  for  in  the  last  analysis  the 
mechanical  principles  involved  in  doing  all  the  world's 
work  are  few  and  relatively  simple,  however  ingenious 
and  relatively  complex  may  be  the  appliances  through 
which  these  principles  are  made  available. 


IX 

MAN'S   NEWEST   CO-LABORER:    THE   DYNAMO 

AS  you  stand  waiting  for  your  train  at  elevated  or 
subway  station  you  must  have  noticed  the  third 
rail.  To  outward  appearance  it  is  not  different 
from  the  other  rails.  It  seems  a  mere  inert  piece  of  steel. 
Yet  you  are  well  aware  that  a  strange  power  abides 
there  unseen — a  power  that  pulls  the  train,  and  that 
lurks  in  hiding  to  strike  a  death-blow  to  any  chance  un- 
fortunate whose  foot  or  hand  comes  in  contact  with 
the  rail.  As  the  heavy  train  dashes  up,  dragged  by  this 
unseen  power,  probably  you,  in  common  with  the  rest  of 
the  world,  have  been  led  to  remark,  "Is  it  not  marvel- 
ous?" 

Marvelous  it  surely  seems.  Yet  the  cause  of  our  as- 
tonishment is  to  be  sought  in  the  relative  newness  of  the 
phenomena  rather  than  in  the  nature  of  the  phenomena 
themselves.  At  first  glance  it  may  seem  that  the  in- 
tangible character  of  the  electrical  power  gives  it  a 
unique  claim  on  our  wonderment.  But  a  moment's 
reflection  dispels  this  illusion.  After  all,  electricity 
is  no  more  intangible  than  heat.  Neither  the  one  nor  the 
other  can  be  seen  or  heard,  but  each  alike  may  be  felt. 
Yet  we  observe  without  astonishment  a  locomotive 
propelled  by  the  power  of  heat — simply  because  the 
locomotive  has  become  an  old  story.  Again,  electricity 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

is  far  less  intangible  than  gravitation.  Not  merely  may 
electricity  be  felt,  but  it  may  be  generated  through  trans- 
formation of  other  forms  of  energy;  it  may  be  stored 
away  and  measured;  may  be  conducted  at  will  through 
tortuous  channels,  or  obstructed  in  its  flight  by  the  in- 
tervention of  non-conductors.  But  gravitation  submits 
to  no  such  restrictions.  It  eludes  all  of  our  senses,  and  it 
absolutely  disregards  all  barriers.  To  its  catholic  taste 
all  substances  are  alike.  It  holds  in  bondage  every 
particle  of  matter  in  the  universe,  and  can  enforce  its 
influence  over  every  kind  of  atom  with  an  impartiality 
that  is  as  astounding  as  it  is  inexorable.  Moreover, 
this  weird  force,  gravitation,  has  thus  far  evaded  all 
man's  efforts  to  classify  or  label  it.  No  man  has  the 
slightest  inkling  as  to  what  gravitation  really  is.  If, 
as  you  glance  at  these  lines,  you  should  chance  to  release 
your  hold  and  allow  the  volume  to  drop  to  the  floor,  you 
will  have  performed  a  miracle  which  no  scientist  in  the 
world  can  even  vaguely  explain. 

As  regards  our  electric  train,  then,  the  fact  that  it 
stands  there  firmly,  held  fast  to  the  rails  by  gravitation, 
is  in  reality  as  great  and  as  inexplicable  a  marvel  as  the 
fact  that  the  electric  current  gives  it  propulsion.  Not 
only  so,  but  the  fact  that  the  train  goes  forward  of  its 
own  inertia,  as  we  say,  for  a  time  after  the  current  is 
shut  off,  presents  to  us  yet  another  inexplicable  marvel. 
It  is  a  fundamental  property  of  matter,  we  say,  when 
once  in  motion  to  continue  in  motion  until  stopped  by 
some  counter-force ;  but  that  phrasing,  expressive  though 
it  be  of  a  fact  upon  which  so  many  physical  phenomena 
depend,  is  in  no  proper  sense  of  the  word  an  explanation. 


MAN'S   CO-LABORER:  THE   DYNAMO 

Once  for  all,  then,  there  is  nothing  unique,  nothing 
preternaturally  marvelous,  about  the  phenomena  of 
electricity.  And  indeed,  it  is  interesting  to  note  how 
quickly  we  become  accustomed  to  these  phenomena, 
and  how  little  wonder  they  excite  so  soon  as  they  cease 
to  be  novel.  Even  imaginative  people  have  long  since 
ceased  to  give  thought  to  the  trolley  car;  and  within  a 
week  of  the  opening  of  New  York's  subway  the  average 
man  came  to  regard  it  as  much  as  a  matter  of  course  as 
if  he  had  been  accustomed  to  it  from  boyhood. 

And  yet,  in  another  sense  of  the  word,  the  electric 
motor  is  a  wonderful  contrivance.  As  an  example  of 
what  man's  ingenuity  can  accomplish  toward  trans- 
forming the  powers  of  nature  and  adapting  them  to  his 
own  use,  it  is  fully  entitled  to  be  called  a  marvel.  More- 
over, in  the  last  analysis,  we  are  as  helpless  to  explain  the 
nature  of  electricity  as  we  are  to  explain  the  nature 
of  gravitation.  It  is  only  the  proximal  phenomena  of 
the  electric  current  that  can  be  explained.  These 
phenomena,  however,  are  full  of  interest.  Let  us 
examine  them  somewhat  in  detail,  allowing  them  to  lead 
us  back  from  electric  train  to  power-house  and  dynamo, 
and  from  dynamo  as  far  toward  the  mystery  of  electric 
energy  as  present-day  science  can  guide  us. 

THE  MECHANISM  OF  THE  DYNAMO 

If  we  could  look  into  the  interior  of  a  mechanism  in 
connection  with  the  trucks  beneath  the  car,  we  should 
find  an  apparatus  consisting  essentially  of  coils  of  wire 
adjusted  compactly  about  an  axis,  and  closely  fitted 

[173] 


THE   CONQUEST   OF   NATURE 

between  the  poles  of  a  powerful  electromagnet.  These 
coils  of  wire  constitute  what  is  called  an  armature.  When 
the  current  is  switched  on  it  passes  through  this  arma- 
ture, as  well  as  through  the  electromagnet,  and  the  mutual 
attractions  and  repulsions  between  the  magnetic  poles 
and  the  electric  current  in  the  coils  of  wire,  cause  the 
armature  to  revolve  with  such  tremendous  energy  as 
to  move  the  train — the  motion  of  its  axis  being  trans- 
mitted to  the  axle  of  the  car- wheels  by  a  simple  gearing. 

All  this  is  simple  enough  if  we  regard  only  the  how 
and  not  the  why  of  the  phenomena.  Ignoring  the  why 
for  the  moment,  let  us  seek  the  origin  of  the  current 
which,  by  being  conducted  through  the  armature, 
has  produced  the  striking  effect  we  have  just  witnessed. 
This  current  reaches  the  car  through  an  overhead  or 
underground  wire.  All  that  is  essential  is  that  some  con- 
ducting medium,  such  as  an  iron  rail,  or  a  copper  wire, 
shall  form  an  unbroken  connection  between  the  motor 
apparatus  and  the  central  dynamo  where  the  power  is 
generated — the  return  circuit  being  made  either  by 
another  wire  or  by  the  ordinary  rails. 

The  central  dynamo  in  question  will  be  found,  if  we 
visit  the  power-house,  to  be  a  ponderous  affair,  sugges- 
tive to  the  untechnical  mind  of  impenetrable  mysteries. 
Yet  in  reality  it  is  a  device  essentially  the  same  in  con- 
struction as  the  motor  which  drives  the  train.  That 
is  to  say,  its  unit  of  construction  consists  of  a  wire- 
wound  armature  revolving  on  an  axis  and  fitted  between 
the  poles  of  an  electromagnet.  Here,  however,  the 
sequence  of  phenomena  is  reversed,  for  the  armature, 
instead  of  receiving  a  current  of  electricity,  is  made  to 


Lower  figure  copyrighted  by  N.  Y.  Edison  Co. 

AN    ELECTRIC   TRAIN    AND   THE    DYNAMO    THAT   PROPELS    IT. 

The  lower  figure  gives  an  interior  view  of  a  power  house  of  the  Manhattan 
Elevated  Railway  Company.  The  upper  figure  shows  one  of  the  electric  engines 
operating  on  the" New  York  Central  Lines  just  outside  of  New  York.  The  power 
is  conveyed  to  the  engine  by  a  third  rail  clearly  shown  in  the  picture. 


MAN'S   CO-LABORER:   THE   DYNAMO 

revolve  by  a  belt  adjusted  to  its  axis  and  driven  by  a 
steam  engine.  The  wire  coils  of  the  armature  thus  made 
to  revolve  cut  across  the  so-called  lines  of  magnetic 
force  which  connect  the  two  poles  of  the  magnet,  and 
in  so  doing  generate  a  current  of  induced  electricity, 
which  flows  away  to  reach  in  due  course  the  third  rail 
or  the  trolley- wire,  and  ultimately  to  propel  the  motor. 
It  is  hardly  necessary  to  state  that  in  actual  practice 
this  generating  dynamo  is  a  complex  structure.  The 
armature  is  a  complex  series  of  coils  of  wire;  the  elec- 
tromagnets surrounding  the  armature  are  several  or 
many;  and  there  is  an  elaborate  system  of  so-called 
commutators  through  which  the  currents  of  electricity — 
which  would  otherwise  oscillate  as  the  revolving  coil 
cuts  the  lines  of  magnetic  force  in  opposite  directions — 
are  made  to  flow  in  one  direction.  But  details  aside, 
the  foundation  facts  upon  which  everything  depends 
are  (i)  that  a  coil  of  wire  when  forced  to  move  so  that 
it  cuts  across  the  lines  of  force  in  any  magnetic  field 
develops  a  so-called  induced  current  of  electricity;  and 
(2)  that  such  an  induced  current  possesses  power  of 
magnetic  attraction  and  repulsion.  These  facts  were 
discovered  more  than  sixty  years  ago,  and  carefully 
studied  by  Michael  Faraday,  Joseph  Henry,  and  others. 
Faraday  found  that  such  an  induced  current  could  be 
produced  not  merely  with  the  aid  of  an  iron  magnet, 
but  even  by  causing  a  wire  to  cut  the  lines  of  force  that 
everywhere  connect  the  north  and  south  poles  of  the 
earth, — the  earth  being  indeed,  as  William  Gilbert  long 
ago  demonstrated,  veritably  a  gigantic  magnet.  More- 
over, these  relations  are  reciprocal;  so  that  if  a  wire 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

through  which  a  current  of  electricity  is  passing  is 
placed  across  a  magnetic  field,  the  wire  is  impelled  to 
move  in  a  plane  at  right  angles  to  the  direction  of  the 
lines  of  force.  It  is  forcibly  thrust  aside.  This  side- 
thrust  acting  on  coils  of  wire  is  what  produces  the 
revolution  of  the  armature  of  the  electric  motor. 


THE   ORIGIN  OF    THE  DYNAMO 

The  very  first  studies  that  had  to  do  with  the  mutual 
relations  of  electricity  and  magnetism  were  made  by 
Hans  Christian  Oersted,  the  Dane,  as  early  as  1815. 
He  discovered  that  a  magnetic  needle  is  influenced  by 
the  passage  near  it  of  a  current  of  electricity,  demon- 
strating, therefore,  that  the  electric  current  in  some 
way  invades  the  medium  surrounding  any  conductor 
along  which  it  is  passing.  Oersted's  experiments  were 
repeated,  and  some  new  phenomena  observed  by  the 
Frenchman  Andre  Marie  Ampere  and  Dominique  Fran- 
cois Arago.  Arago  constructed  an  interesting  device,  in 
which  a  metal  disk  was  made  to  revolve  in  the  presence  of 
a  current  of  electricity;  but  neither  he  nor  anyone  else  at 
the  time  was  able  to  explain  the  phenomenon. 

In  1824  an  advance  was  made  through  the  construc- 
tion of  the  first  electric  magnet  by  Sturgeon.  Hitherto 
it  had  not  been  known  that  a  magnet  could  be  made 
artificially,  except  by  contact  with  a  previously  existing 
magnet.  Sturgeon  showed  that  any  core  of  iron  may 
be  rendered  magnetic  if  wound  with  a  conducting  wire, 
through  which  a  current  of  electricity  is  passed.  The 
experiments  thus  inaugurated  were  followed  up  in 


MAN'S   CO-LABORER:  THE   DYNAMO 

America  by  Joseph  Henry  of  Albany  who  made  enor- 
mous electromagnets,  capable  of  sustaining  great 
weights.  One  of  his  magnets,  operated  by  a  single  cell, 
was  able  to  lift  six  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  of  metal. 

It  was  this  apparatus  which  was  subsequently  to 
make  possible  the  utilization  of  electricity  as  a  working 
force,  but  as  yet  no  one  suspected  its  possibilities  in 
this  direction. 

It  remained  for  Michael  Faraday,  in  1831,  to  make 
the  final  experiment  which  laid  the  secure  foundation 
for  the  new  science  of  electrodynamics.  Faraday  con- 
structed a  tiny  apparatus,  consisting  of  a  magnet 
between  the  poles  of  which  a  metal  disk  was  placed  in 
such  a  way  that  it  could  revolve  on  an  axis,  the  disk 
being  connected  with  a  wire  conveying  an  electric 
current. 

The  details  as  to  this  most  ingenious  mechanism 
need  not  be  given  here.  Suffice  it  that  Faraday  demon- 
strated the  interrelations  of  magnetism  and  electricity 
and  the  possibility  of  causing  a  metal  disk  to  revolve 
through  this  mutual  interaction.  In  so  doing  he  con- 
structed the  first  dynamo-electric  machine.  In  his  hands 
it  was  a  mere  laboratory  toy,  but  the  principles  involved 
were  fully  elaborated  by  the  original  experimenter,  and 
stated  in  precise  language  which  modern  investigators 
have  not  been  able  to  improve  upon. 

Several  decades  elapsed  after  Faraday's  initial  ex- 
periment before  the  phenomena  of  magneto-electricity 
were  proved  to  have  any  considerable  commercial 
significance.  A  vast  amount  of  ingenuity  was  required 
to  devise  a  mechanism  which  could  advantageously  util- 

VOL.  VI.— 12 


THE   CONQUEST   OF   NATURE 

ize  the  principle  in  question  for  commercial  purposes. 
Indeed  the  early  experimenters  did  not  at  once  get  upon 
the  right  track,  as  their  efforts  were  influenced  disad- 
vantageously  by  an  attempt  to  follow  the  principle  of 
the  steam  engine.  Some  interesting  mechanisms  were 
devised  whereby  the  motion  of  an  armature  in  being 
drawn  toward  an  electromagnet  could  be  translated 
into  rotary  motion  through  the  use  of  crank-shafts  and 
even  of  beams,  precisely  comparable  to  those  employed 
in  the  steam  engine.  Such  devices  worked  with  a  com- 
paratively low  degree  of  efficiency  and  were  totally  aban- 
doned so  soon  as  the  idea  of  getting  rotary  motion  di- 
rectly from  the  magnet  or  armature  was  made  feasible. 
The  names  of  Saxton,  Clarke,  Woolrich,  Wheatstone, 
and  Werner  Siemens  are  intimately  connected  with  the 
early  efforts  at  utilization  of  magneto-electric  power. 
The  shuttle-wound  armature  of  Siemens,  invented  in 
1854,  marked  an  important  progressive  step. 

PERFECTING    THE    DYNAMO 

The  first  separately  excited  dynamos  were  constructed 
by  Dr.  Henry  Wilde,  F.R.S.,  between  1863  and  1865, 
and  this  invention  paved  the  way  for  rapid  progress. 
In  1866-7  Varley,  Siemens,  Wheatstone,  and  Ladd  con- 
structed machines  with  several  iron  electromagnets, 
self-excited,  which  were  described  as  dynamo-electric 
machines,  a  term  afterward  contracted  to  dynamos.  In 
1867  Dr.  Wilde  improved  the  armature  by  introducing 
several  coils  arranged  around  a  cylinder;  the  current 
from  a  few  of  the  coils  was  rectified  and  used 


WILDE'S  SEPARATELY  EXCITED  DYNAMO 


Dr.  Wilde  invented  and  patented  (1863-5)  the  first  separately  excited  dynamo, 
with  which  he  demonstrated  that  the  feeble  current  from  a  small  magneto-electric 
machine  would,  by  the  expenditure  of  mechanical  power,  produce  currents  of  great 
strength  from  a  large  dynamo. 


MAN'S   CO-LABORER:   THE   DYNAMO 

to  excite  the  field  magnet,  while  the  main  current  as 
given  off  by  the  rest  of  the  coils  was  taken  off  by  ring- 
contacts,  the  machine  being  a  self-exciting,  alternating- 
current  dynamo. 

The  Italian,  Picnotti,  in  1864  invented  a  ring  arma- 
ture which,  although  provided  with  teeth  was  wound 
with  coils  in  such  a  way  as  to  obtain  a  very  uniform 
current;  but  the  practical  introduction  of  the  con- 
tinuous-current machines  dates  from  1870,  when 
Gramme  re-invented  the  ring  and  gave  it  the  form 
which  is  still  in  vogue.  Von  Alteneck  in  1873  con- 
verted the  Siemens  shuttle  armature  along  the  same 
lines  and  so  introduced  the  drum  arrangement  which 
has  since  been  very  extensively  adopted. 

Thus  through  the  efforts  of  a  great  number  of  workers 
the  idea  of  utilizing  electromagnetic  energy  for  the 
purposes  of  the  practical  worker  came  to  be  a  reality. 
Numberless  machines  have  been  made  differing  only  as 
to  details  that  need  not  detain  us  here.  Everyone  is 
familiar  with  sundry  applications  of  the  dynamo  to  the 
purposes  of  to-day's  applied  science.  It  must  be  under- 
stood, of  course,  that  the  amount  of  electricity  generated 
in  any  dynamo  is  precisely  measurable,  and  that  by 
no  possibility  could  the  energy  thus  developed  exceed 
the  energy  required  to  move  the  coils  of  wire.  Were 
it  otherwise  the  great  law  of  the  conservation  of  energy 
would  be  overthrown.  In  actual  practice,  of  course, 
there  is  loss  of  energy  in  the  transaction.  The  current 
of  electricity  that  flows  from  the  very  best  dynamo  repre- 
sents considerably  less  working  power  than  is  expended 
by  the  steam  engine  in  forcibly  revolving  the  armature. 

[i79] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

In  the  early  days  of  experiments  the  loss  was  so  great 
as  to  be  commercially  prohibitive.  With  the  perfected 
modern  dynamo  the  loss  is  not  greater  than  fifteen  per 
cent;  but  even  this,  it  will  be  noted,  makes  electricity 
a  relatively  expensive  power  as  compared  with  steam,— 
except,  indeed,  where  some  natural  power,  like  the  Falls 
of  Niagara,  can  be  utilized  to  drive  the  armature. 

A    MYSTERIOUS   MECHANISM 

The  efficiency  of  the  modern  dynamo  is  due  largely 
to  the  fact  that  when  the  poles  of  the  magnet  are  made 
to  face  each  other,  the  lines  of  magnetic  force  passing 
between  these  poles  are  concentrated  into  a  narrow 
compass.  With  the  ordinary  bar  magnet,  as  everyone 
is  aware,  these  lines  of  force  circle  out  in  every  direction 
from  the  poles  in  an  almost  infinite  number  of  loops,  all 
converging  at  the  poles,  and  becoming  relatively  sepa- 
rated at  the  equator  in  a  manner  which  may  be  graph- 
ically illustrated  by  the  lines  of  longitude  drawn  on  an 
ordinary  globe. 

It  is  obvious  that  with  a  magnet  of  such  construction 
only  a  small  proportion  of  the  lines  of  magnetic  force 
could  be  utilized  in  generating  electricity.  But,  as  al- 
ready mentioned,  when  the  magnet  is  so  curved  that  its 
poles  face  each  other,  the  lines  of  force,  instead  of  widely 
diverging,  pass  from  pole  to  pole  almost  in  a  direct 
stream.  The  strength  of  this  magnetic  stream  may  be 
increased  almost  indefinitely  by  winding  the  iron  core 
of  the  magnet  with  the  coil  of  wire  through  which  the 
electric  current  is  passed,  thus  constituting  the  electro- 

[!&>] 


THE    EVOLUTION    OF    THE    DYNAMO. 

Fig.  i. — A  small  example  of  the  original  commercial  form  of  the  drum  armature  ma- 
chine,  patented  in  1873  by  Dr.  Werner  Siemens  and  F.  Von  Hefner  Alteneck.  The  armature 
is  a  development  of  the  Siemens  shuttle  form  of  1856,  and  gives  a.  nearly  continuous  current. 
An  early  experimental  dynamo.  Fig.  3. — Ferranti's  original  dynamo,  patented  in 
1882-1883.  The  field  magnets  are  stationary  and  consist  of  two  sets  of  electro-magnets  each 
\vith  1 6  projecting  pull  pieces,  between  which  the  armature  revolves.  Fig.  4. — The  gigantic 
rotary  converters  of  the  Manhattan  Elevated  Railway. 


MAN'S   CO-LABORER:   THE   DYNAMO 

magnet  which  has  replaced  the  old  permanent  magnet 
in  all  modern  commercial  dynamos. 

An  electromagnet  may  be  sufficiently  powerful  to  lift 
tons  of  iron.  The  force  it  exerts,  therefore,  is  very 
tangible  in  its  results.  Yet  it  seems  mysterious,  because 
so  many  substances  are  unaffected  by  it.  You  may 
place  your  head,  for  example,  between  the  poles  of  the 
most  powerful  magnet  without  experiencing  any  sen- 
sation or  being  in  any  obvious  way  affected.  You  may 
wave  your  hand  across  the  lines  of  force  as  freely  as  you 
may  wave  it  anywhere  else  in  space.  Apparently 
nothing  is  there.  But  were  you  to  attempt  to  pass  a 
dumb-bell  or  a  bar  of  iron  across  the  same  space,  the 
unseen  magnetic  force  would  wrench  it  from  your  grasp 
with  a  power  so  irresistible  as  to  be  awe-inspiring. 

Similarly,  the  armature,  when  its  coils  of  wire  are  ad- 
justed between  the  poles  of  the  magnet,  is  held  in  a  vise- 
like  grip  by  the  invisible  but  potent  lines  of  magnetic 
force  which  tend  to  make  it  revolve.  It  requires  a 
tremendous  expenditure  of  energy — supplied  by  the 
steam-engine  or  by  water  power — to  enable  the  coiled 
wires  of  the  generating  armature  to  stem  the  current  of 
magnetic  force,  which  is  virtually  what  is  done  when  the 
armature  revolves  in  such  a  way  as  to  produce  electrical 
energy.  Part  of  the  mechanical  energy  thus  expended  is 
transformed  into  heat  and  dissipated  into  space;  but 
the  main  portion  is  carried  off,  as  we  have  seen,  through 
the  coiled  wires  of  the  armature  in  the  form  of  what  we 
term  the  current  of  electricity,  to  be  re-transformed  in 
due  course  into  the  mechanical  energy  that  moves  the 
car. 

[181] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

It  appears,  then,  that  the  phenomena  of  the  electric 
dynamo  depend  upon  the  curious  relations  that  exist 
between  magnetism  and  electricity.  Granted  the  es- 
sential facts  of  magneto-electric  induction,  all  the  phe- 
nomena of  the  dynamo  are  explicable.  But  how  ex- 
plain these  facts  themselves  ?  Why  is  an  electric  current 
generated  in  a  coil  of  wire  moving  in  a  magnetic  field  ? 
And  why  is  a  wire  carrying  a  current  of  electricity,  when 
placed  across  a  magnetic  field,  impelled  to  move  at 
right  angles  to  the  lines  of  magnetic  force  ?  No  thought- 
ful person  can  consider  the  subject  without  asking  these 
questions.  But  as  yet  no  definitive  answer  is  forthcom- 
ing. Some  suggestive  half-explanations,  based  on  an 
assumed  condition  of  torsion  or  strain  in  the  ether,  have 
been  attempted,  but  they  can  hardly  be  called  more 
than  scientific  guesses. 

Meanwhile,  it  may  be  understood  that  the  mutual 
relations  of  the  magnetic  and  electrical  forces  just 
referred  to  are  not  at  all  dependent  upon  the  manner 
in  which  the  electric  current  is  generated.  The  magneto- 
electric  motor  may  be  operated  as  well  with  a  chemical 
battery  as  with  such  a  mechanical  generating  dynamo 
as  has  just  been  described.  The  storage-batteries 
which  have  been  employed  in  some  street  railways  and 
those  which  propel  the  electric  cabs  about  our  city 
streets  furnish  cases  in  point.  The  only  reason  these 
are  not  more  generally  employed  is  that  the  storage 
battery  has  not  yet  been  perfected  so  that  it  can  produce 
a  large  supply  of  electricity  in  proportion  to  its  weight, 
and  produce  it  economically. 


X 

NIAGARA  IN   HARNESS 

"TTARNESSING  NIAGARA"— the  phrase  has 
I  I  been  a  commonplace  for  a  generation;  but 
"*~  until  very  recently  indeed  it  was  nothing  more 
than  a  phrase.  Almost  since  the  time  when  the  Falls 
were  first  viewed  by  a  white  man  the  idea  of  utilizing 
their  powers  has  been  dreamed  of.  But  until  our  own 
day — until  the  last  decade — science  had  not  shown 
a  way  in  which  the  great  current  could  be  economically 
shackled.  A  few  puny  mill-wheels  have  indeed  re- 
volved for  thirty  years  or  so,  but  these  were  of  no 
greater  significance  than  the  thousands  of  others  driven 
by  mountain  streams  or  by  the  currents  of  ordinary 
rivers.  But  about  a  decade  ago  the  engineering  skill  of 
the  world  was  placed  in  commission,  and  to-day  Niagara 
is  fairly  in  harness. 

If  you  have  ever  seen  Niagara — and  who  has  not  seen 
it? — you  must  have  been  struck  with  the  metamor- 
phosis that  comes  over  the  stream  about  half  a  mile 
above  the  falls.  Above  this  point  the  river  flows  with 
a  smooth  sluggish  current.  Only  fifteen  feet  have  the 
waters  sunk  in  their  placid  flowing  since  they  left  Lake 
Erie.  But  now  in  the  course  of  half  a  mile  they  are 
pitched  down  more  than  two  hundred  feet.  If  you 
follow  the  stream  toward  this  decline  you  shall  see  it 


THE   CONQUEST   OF  NATURE 

undergo  a  marvelous  change.  Of  a  sudden  the  placid 
waters  seem  to  feel  the  beckoning  of  a  new  impulse. 
Caught  with  the  witchery  of  a  new  motion,  they  go 
swirling  ahead  with  unwonted  lilt  and  plunge,  calling  out 
with  ribald  voices  that  come  to  the  ear  in  an  inchoate 
chorus  of  strident,  high-pitched  murmurings.  Each 
wavelet  seems  eager  to  hurry  on  to  the  full  fruition  of 
the  cataract.  It  lashes  with  angry  foam  each  chance 
obstruction,  and  gurgles  its  disapproval  in  ever-changing 
measures.  Even  to  the  most  thoughtless  observer  the 
mighty  current  thus  unchained  attests  the  sublimity 
of  almost  irresistible  power.  Could  a  mighty  mill-wheel 
be  adjusted  in  that  dizzy  current,  what  labors  might  it 
not  perform?  Five  million  tons  of  water  rush  down 
this  decline  each  hour,  we  are  told;  and  the  force  that 
thus  goes  to  waste  is  as  if  three  million  unbridled 
horses  exhausted  their  strength  in  ceaseless  plunging. 
This  estimate  may  be  only  a  guess,  but  it  matters  not 
whether  it  be  high  or  low;  all  estimates  are  futile,  all 
comparisons  inadequate  to  convey  even  a  vague  con- 
ception of  the  majesty  of  power  with  which  the  mighty 
waters  rush  on  to  their  final  plunge  into  the  abysm. 

It  is  here,  you  might  well  suppose,  where  the  appall- 
ing force  of  the  current  is  made  so  tangible,  that  man 
would  place  the  fetters  of  his  harness,  making  the 
madcap  current  subject  to  his  will.  You  will  perhaps 
more  than  half  expect  to  see  gigantic  mechanisms  of 
man's  construction  built  out  over  the  rapids  or  across 
the  face  of  the  cataract — so  much  has  been  said  of 
aestheticism  versus  commercialism  in  connection  with 
the  attempt  to  utilize  Niagara's  power.  But  whatever 


NIAGARA  IN   HARNESS 

your  fears  in  this  regard,  they  will  not  be  realized.  In- 
spect the  rapids  and  the  falls  as  you  may,  you  will  see 
no  evidence  that  man  has  tampered  with  their  pristine 
freedom.  Subtler  means  have  been  employed  to  tame 
the  wild  steed.  The  mad  waves  that  go  dashing  down 
the  rapids  are  as  free  and  untrammeled  to-day  as  they 
were  when  the  wild  Indian  was  the  only  witness  of  their 
tempestuous  activity.  Such  portions  of  the  current  as 
reach  the  rapids  have  full  license  to  pass  on  untram- 
meled, paying  no  toll  to  man.  The  water  which  is 
made  to  pay  tribute  is  drawn  from  the  stream  up  there 
above  the  rapids,  where  it  lies  placid  and  as  yet  unstirred 
by  the  beckoning  incline.  To  see  Niagara  in  harness, 
then,  you  must  leave  the  cataract  and  the  rapids  and 
pass  a  full  mile  up  the  stream  where  the  great  river 
looks  as  calm  as  the  Hudson  or  the  Mississippi,  and 
where,  under  ordinary  conditions,  not  even  the  sound 
of  the  falls  comes  to  your  ear. 

Prosaic  enough  it  seems  to  observe  here  nothing 
more  startling  than  a  broad  cid  de  sac  of  stagnant  water, 
like  the  beginning  of  a  broad  canal,  extending  in  for  a 
few  hundred  yards  only  from  the  main  stream;  its 
waters  silent,  currentless,  seemingly  impotent.  This 
stagnant  pool,  then,  not  the  whirling  current  below, 
is  to  furnish  the  water  whose  reserve  force  of  energy 
of  position  is  drawn  upon  to  serve  man's  greedy  purpose. 
Coming  from  the  rapids  and  cataract  to  this  stagnant 
canal,  you  seem  to  step  from  the  realm  of  poetic  beauty 
to  the  sordid  realities  of  the  work-a-day  world.  Of  a 
truth  it  would  seem  that  " harnessing  Niagara"  is  but 
a  far-fetrhecl  metaphor. 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

WITHIN  THE  POWER-HOUSE 

And  yet  if  you  will  turn  aside  from  the  canal  and 
enter  one  of  the  long,  low  buildings  that  flank  it  on 
either  side,  you  will  soon  be  made  to  feel  that  the  meta- 
phor was  amply  justified.  Little  as  there  was  exteriorly 
to  suggest  it,  you  are  entering  a  fairyland  of  applied 
science,  and  within  these  plain  walls  you  shall  witness 
evidences  of  the  ingenuity  of  man  that  should  appeal 
scarcely  less  to  your  imagination  than  the  sight  of  the 
cataract  itself  in  all  its  sublimity  of  power. 

For  within  these  walls,  by  a  miracle  of  modern 
science,  the  potential  energy  which  resides  in  the  water 
of  the  canal  is  transformed  into  an  electrical  current 
which  is  sent  out  over  a  network  of  wires  to  distant 
cities  to  perform  a  thousand  necromantic  tasks, — pro- 
pelling a  street  car  in  one  place,  effecting  chemical  de- 
compositions in  another;  turning  the  wheels  of  a  factory 
here  and  lighting  the  streets  of  a  city  there;  in  short,  sub- 
serving the  practical  needs  of  man  in  devious  and  won- 
derful ways. 

Even  as  you  gazed  disdainfully  at  the  stagnant  canal, 
its  waters,  miraculously  transformed,  were  propelling 
the  trolley  cars  along  the  brink  of  the  cliff  over  there 
on  the  Canadian  shore,  and  at  the  same  time  were  turn> 
ing  the  wheels  in  many  a  factory  in  the  distant  city  of 
Buffalo.  After  all,  then,  the  quiet  pool  of  water  was 
not  so  prosaic  as  it  seemed. 

As  you  stand  in  the  building  where  this  wonderful 
transformation  of  power  is  effected,  the  noble  simplicity 
of  the  vista  heightens  the  mystery.  The  most  significant 

[186] 


VIEW    IN    ONE   OF   THE   POWER    HOUSES   AT   NIAGARA. 

Each  of  the  top-like  dynamos  generates  5000  horse-power. 


NIAGARA   IN   HARNESS 

thing  that  strikes  the  eye  is  a  row  of  great  mushroom- 
like  affairs,  for  all  the  world  like  giant  tops,  that  stand 
spinning — and  spinning.  These  great  tops  are  about  a 
dozen  feet  in  diameter.  They  are  whirling,  so  we  are 
told,  at  a  rate  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  revolutions  per 
minute.  Hour  after  hour  they  spin  on,  never  varying 
in  speed,  never  faltering;  day  and  night  are  alike  to 
them,  and  one  day  is  like  another.  They  are  as  cease- 
lessly active,  as  unwearying  as  Niagara  itself,  whose 
power  they  symbolize;  and,  like  the  great  Falls,  they 
murmur  exultingly  as  they  work. 

The  giant  tops  which  thus  seem  to  bid  defiance  to  the 
laws  of  motion  are  in  reality  electric  dynamos,  no  dif- 
ferent in  principle  from  the  electric  generators  with 
which  some  visit  to  a  street-car  power-house  has  doubt- 
less made  you  familiar.  The  anomalous  feature  of 
these  dynamos — in  addition  to  their  size — is  found  in 
the  fact  that  they  revolve  on  a  vertical  shaft  which  ex- 
tends down  into  a  hole  in  the  earth  for  more  than  a 
hundred  feet,  and  at  the  other  end  of  which  is  adjusted 
a  gigantic  turbine  water- wheel.  Water  from  the  canal 
is  supplied  this  great  turbine  wheel  through  a  steel  tube 
or  penstock,  seven  feet  in  diameter.  As  the  turbine 
revolves  under  stress  of  this  mighty  column  of  water,  the 
long  shaft  revolves  with  it,  thus  turning  the  electric  gen- 
erator at  the  other  end  of  the  shaft — the  generator  at 
which  we  are  looking,  and  which  we  have  likened  to  a 
giant  top — without  the  interposition  of  any  form  of 
gearing  whatever. 

To  gain  a  vivid  mental  picture  of  the  apparatus,  we 
must  take  an  elevator  and  descend  to  the  lower  regions 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

where  the  turbine  wheel  is  in  operation.  As  we  pass 
down  and  down,  our  eyes  all  the  time  fixed  on  the  ver- 
tical revolving  shaft,  which  is  visible  through  a  network 
of  bars  and  gratings,  it  becomes  increasingly  obvious 
that  to  speak  of  this  shaft  as  standing  in  "a  hole  in  the 
ground"  is  to  do  the  situation  very  scant  justice.  A 
much  truer  picture  will  be  conceived  if  we  think  of  the 
entire  power-house  as  a  monster  building,  about  two 
hundred  feet  high,  all  but  the  top  story  being  under- 
ground. What  corresponds  to  the  ground  floor  of  the 
ordinary  building  is  located  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet 
below  the  earth's  surface;  and  it  is  the  top  story  which 
we  entered  from  the  street  level,  thus  precisely  reversing 
the  ordinary  conditions. 

PENSTOCKS  AND  TURBINES 

As  we  descend  now  and  reach  at  last  the  lowest  floor 
of  the  building,  we  step  out  into  a  long  narrow  room, 
the  main  surface  of  which  is  taken  up  with  a  series  of 
gigantic  turnip-shaped  mechanisms,  each  one  having  a 
revolving  shaft  at  its  axis;  while  from  its  side  projects 
outward  and  then  upward  a  seven-foot  steel  tube,  for  all 
the  world  like  the  funnel  of  a  steamship.  This  seeming 
funnel — technically  termed  a  penstock — is  in  reality 
the  great  tube  through  which  the  massive  column  of 
water  finds  access  to  the  turbine  wheel,  which  of  course  is 
incased  within  the  turnip-shaped  mechanism  at  its  base. 

As  you  stand  there  beside  this  great  steel  mechanism 
a  sense  of  wonderment  and  of  utter  helplessness  takes 
possession  of  you.  As  you  glance  down  the  hall  at  this 

[188] 


NIAGARA   IN    HARNESS 

series  of  great  water  conduits,  and  strain  your  eyes  up- 
ward in  the  endeavor  to  follow  the  great  funnel  to  its 
very  end,  an  oppressive  sense  of  the  irresistible  weight 
of  the  great  column  of  water  it  supports  comes  to  you, 
and  you  can  scarcely  avoid  a  feeling  of  apprehension. 
Suppose  one  of  the  great  tubes  were  to  burst? — we 
should  all  be  drowned  like  rats  in  a  hole.  There  is  small 
danger,  to  be  sure,  of  such  a  contingency;  but  it  is  well 
worth  while  to  have  stood  thus  away  down  here  at  the 
heart  of  the  great  power-house  to  have  gained  an  awed 
sense  of  what  man  can  accomplish  toward  rivaling  the 
wonders  of  nature.  To  have  stood  an  hour  ago  on  the 
ice  bridge  at  the  foot  of  the  most  tremendous  cataract  in 
the  world,  where  Nature  exhausts  her  powers  amidst  the 
mad  rush  and  roar  of  seething  waters ;  and  now  to  stand 
beneath  this  other  column  of  water  which  effects  a  no 
less  wonderful  transformation  of  energy,  serenely, 
silently, — is  to  have  run  such  a  gamut  of  emotions  as  few 
other  hours  in  all  your  life  can  have  in  store  for  you. 

A  MIRACULOUS   TRANSFORMATION  OF  ENERGY 

There  are  eleven  of  these  great  turbine  mechanisms, 
each  with  a  supplying  funnel  of  water  and  a  revolving 
shaft  extending  upward  to  its  companion  dynamo,  in 
the  room  in  which  we  stand.  Energy  representing  fifty- 
five  thousand  horse-power  is  incessantly  transformed 
and  made  available  for  man's  use  in  the  subterranean 
building  in  which  we  stand.  And  there  is  not  a  pound 
of  coal,  not  a  lick  of  flame,  not  an  atom  of  steam  in- 
volved in  the  transformation.  There  are  no  dust- 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

grimed  laborers;  there  is  no  glare  of  furnace,  no  glow  of 
heat,  no  stifling  odor  of  burning  fuel; — there  is  only  the 
restful  hum  of  the  machinery  that  responds  to  the  cease- 
less flow  of  the  silent  and  invisible  waters.  Day  and 
night  the  mighty  river  here  pulls  away  at  its  turbine 
harness;  and  man,  having  once  adjusted  that  harness, 
may  take  his  ease  and  enjoy  the  fruits  of  his  ingenuity. 
As  we  return  now  to  the  top  of  the  building,  we  shall 
view  the  spinning  dynamos  with  renewed  interest,  and  a 
few  facts  regarding  their  output  of  energy  may  well  claim 
our  attention.  In  their  principle  of  action,  as  we  have 
seen,  all  dynamos  are  alike, — depending  upon  the 
mutual  relations  between  the  wire- wound  armature  and 
a  magnetic  field.  In  the  present  case  the  magnets  are 
made  to  revolve  and  the  armatures  are  stationary, 
but  this  is  a  mere  detail.  There  is  one  feature  of  these 
dynamos,  however,  which  is  of  greater  importance, — 
the  fact  namely  that  they  operate  without  commutators, 
and  therefore  produce  alternating  currents.  This  fact 
has  an  important  bearing  upon  the  distribution  of  the 
current.  Each  of  the  dynamos  before  us  generates  the 
equivalent  of  five  thousand  horse-power  of  energy. 
There  are  eleven  such  dynamos  here  before  us;  there 
are  ten  more  in  the  power-house  on  the  other  side  of  the 
canal,  giving  a  total  of  one  hundred  and  five  thousand 
horse-power  for  this  single  plant;  and  there  are  five 
such  plants  now  in  existence  or  in  course  of  construc- 
tion to  utilize  the  waters  of  Niagara,  three  being  on 
the  Canadian  shore.  When  in  full  operation  the  ag- 
gregate output  of  these  plants  will  be  six  or  seven 
hundred  thousand  horse-power. 

[190] 


NIAGARA   IN    HARNESS 

SUBTERRANEAN  TAIL-RACES 

As  we  step  from  the  door  of  the  power-house  and 
stand  again  beside  the  canal  whose  waters  produce  the 
wonderful  effects  we  have  witnessed  in  imagination, 
one  question  remains  to  be  answered:  What  becomes 
of  the  water  after  it  has  passed  through  the  turbine 
wheels  down  there  in  the  depths?  The  answer  is 
simple:  All  the  water  from  the  various  turbines  flows 
away  into  a  great  subterranean  canal  which  passes 
down  beneath  the  city  of  Niagara  Falls,  and  discharges 
finally  at  the  level  of  the  rapids  a  few  hundred  yards  be- 
low the  Falls.  The  construction  of  this  subterranean 
canal  would  in  itself  have  been  considered  a  great 
engineering  feat  a  few  decades  ago;  but  of  late  years 
mountain  tunnels,  such  subterranean  railways  as  the 
London  "tube  system"  and  tunnels  beneath  rivers  have 
robbed  such  structures  of  their  mystery.  It  may  be 
added  that  another  such  subterranean  canal,  to  serve 
as  a  tail-race  for  one  of  the  new  Canadian  plants,  ex- 
tends beneath  the  cataract  itself,  discharging  not  far  from 
the  centre  of  the  Horsehoe  Falls.  Another  of  the  power 
companies  utilizes  the  water  of  the  old  surface  canal 
which  extends  to  the  brink  of  the  gorge  some  distance 
below  the  Falls.  Yet  another  company  on  the  Canadian 
side  conveys  water  from  far  above  the  rapids  in  a  gigan- 
tic closed  tube  to  the  brink  of  the  gorge  just  below  the 
Canadian  Falls,  above  the  point  where  their  power-house 
is  located. 

But  the  principle  involved  is  everywhere  the  same. 
The  idea  is  merely  to  utilize  the  weight  of  falling  water. 


THE   CONQUEST   OF  NATURE 

The  water  of  Niagara  River  is  of  course  no  different 
from  any  other  body  of  water  of  equal  size.  It  is  merely 
that  its  unique  position  gives  the  engineer  an  easy  op- 
portunity to  utilize  the  potential  energy  that  resides 
in  any  body  of  water — or,  for  that  matter,  in  any  other 
physical  substance — lying  at  a  high  level.  In  due 
course,  doubtless,  other  bodies  of  water,  such  as 
mountain  lakes  and  mountain  streams  will  be  similarly 
put  into  electrical  harness.  The  electrical  feature  is  of 
course  the  one  that  most  appeals  to  the  imagination. 
But  it  may  be  well  to  recall  that  the  ultimate  source  of  all 
the  power  in  question  is  gravitation.  People  fond  of 
philosophical  gymnastics  may  reflect  with  interest  that, 
according  to  the  newest  theory,  gravitation  itself  is,  in 
the  last  analysis,  an  electrical  phenomenon — a  reflec- 
tion which,  it  will  be  noted,  leads  the  mind  through  a 
very  curious  cycle. 

THE  EFFECT  ON  THE  FALLS 

Much  solicitude  has  been  expressed  as  to  the  possible 
effect,  upon  the  Falls  themselves,  of  this  withdrawal 
of  water.  For  the  present,  it  is  admitted,  there  is  no 
visible  effect;  and  to  the  casual  observer  it  may  seem 
that  almost  any  quantity  of  water  the  power-houses 
are  likely  to  need  might  be  withdrawn  without  seriously 
marring  the  wonderful  cataract.  But  the  statistics  sup- 
plied by  the  power  companies,  taken  in  connection  with 
estimates  as  to  the  bulk  of  water  that  passes  over  the 
Falls,  do  not  support  this  optimistic  view.  Taking 
what  seems  to  be  a  reasonable  estimate  for  a  basis  of 

[192] 


NIAGARA  IN   HARNESS 

computation  it  would  appear  that  when  the  power- 
houses now  rapidly  approaching  completion  are  in  full 
operation,  the  total  withdrawal  of  water  from  the 
stream  will  represent  a  very  appreciable  fraction  of  its 
entire  bulk — one-twenty-fifth  at  the  very  least,  per- 
haps as  much  as  one-tenth.  Such  a  diminution  as  this 
will  by  no  means  ruin  the  Falls,  yet  it  would  seem  as  if  it 
must  sensibly  affect  them,  particularly  at  some  places 
near  Goat  Island,  where  the  water  flows  at  present  in 
a  very  shallow  stream.  Be  that  as  it  may,  however, 
the  power-houses  are  there,  and  it  is  probable  that  their 
number  will  be  added  to  as  years  go  on.  Whether  com- 
mercialism or  aestheticism  will  win  in  the  end,  it  re- 
mains for  the  legislators  of  the  future  to  decide. 

Meanwhile,  it  is  gratifying  to  reflect  that  for  the 
present  the  Falls  retain  their  pristine  beauty,  even 
though  part  of  the  water  that  is  their  normal  due  is 
turned  aside  and  made  to  do  service  for  man  in  an- 
other way.  There  is  only  one  reason  why  the  Falls  have 
escaped  desecration  so  long  as  they  have;  that  reason 
being  the  very  practical  one  that  until  quite  recently 
man  has  not  known  how  to  utilize  their  powers  to  ad- 
vantage. The  effort  was  indeed  made,  a  full  genera- 
tion ago,  through  the  construction  of  the  canal  leading 
from  the  upper  river  to  the  bluffs  overlooking  the  gorge 
below  the  cataract.  Here  a  few  mill-wheels  were  set 
whirling,  and  a  tiny  fraction  of  the  potential  energy  of 
the  water  was  utilized.  There  was  no  mechanical 
difficulty  involved  in  the  utilization  of  this  power. 
Mill-wheels  are  a  familiar  old-time  device,  and  even  the 
turbine  wheel  is  modern  only  in  a  relative  sense  of  the 
VOL.  vi.— 13  [  193  ] 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

word.  And  it  must  be  understood  that  the  turbine 
water-wheel  utilizes  the  greatest  proportion  of  the  power 
of  falling  water  of  any  contrivance  as  yet  known  to 
mechanics.  It  was  possible,  then,  to  utilize  the  water 
of  Niagara  with  full  effectiveness  fifty  years  ago,  so  far 
as  the  direct  action  of  the  water-wheel  upon  machinery 
near  at  hand  was  concerned.  The  sole  difficulty  lay 
in  the  fact  that  only  a  small  amount  of  machinery  can  be 
placed  in  any  one  location.  The  real  problem  was  not 
how  to  produce  the  power,  but  how  to  transmit  it  to  a 
distance. 


THE  TRANSMISSION  OF  POWER 

For  fifty  years  mechanical  engineers  have  looked 
enviously  upon  unshackled  Niagara,  and  have  striven 
to  solve  the  problem  of  transmitting  its  power.  It  were 
easy  enough  to  harness  the  great  Fall,  but  futile  to  do 
so,  so  long  as  the  power  generated  must  be  used  in  the 
immediate  vicinity.  So,  many  schemes  for  transmitting 
power  were  tried  one  after  another,  and  as  often 
laid  aside.  There  was  one  objection  to  even  the  best  of 
them — the  cost.  At  one  time  it  was  thought  that  com- 
pressed air  might  solve  the  problem.  But  repeated  ex- 
periments did  not  justify  the  hope.  Then  it  was  be- 
lieved that  the  storage  battery  might  be  made  available. 
The  storage  battery,  it  might  be  explained,  does  not 
really  store  electricity  in  the  sense  in  which  the  Leyden 
jar,  for  example,  stores  it.  Rather  is  it  to  be  likened  to 
an  ordinary  voltaic  cell,  the  chemical  ingredients  of 
which  have  been  rendered  active  by  the  passage  of  the 


NIAGARA   IN   HARNESS 

electric  current.  The  active  ingredients  of  the  storage 
battery  are  usually  lead  compounds,  which  through 
action  of  the  electric  currents  have  been  decomposed  and 
placed  in  a  state  of  chemical  instability.  The  dis- 
sociated molecule  of  the  lead  compound,  when  per- 
mitted to  reunite  with  the  atoms  with  which  it  was 
formerly  associated,  will  give  up  electrical  energy. 

Such  a  storage  battery  might  readily  be  charged  with 
electricity  generated  at  Niagara  Falls.  It  might  then 
be  conveyed  to  any  part  of  the  world,  and,  its  poles 
being  connected,  the  charge  of  electricity  would  be 
made  available.  Such  storage  batteries  are  in  common 
use  in  connection  with  electric  automobiles,  as  we  have 
seen.  But  the  great  difficulty  is  that  they  are  enormously 
heavy  in  proportion  to  the  amount  of  electricity  that 
they  can  generate;  therefore,  their  transportation  is 
difficult  and  expensive.  In  practice  it  is  cheaper  to 
produce  electricity  through  the  operation  of  a  steam 
engine  in  a  distant  city  than  to  transmit  the  electricity 
with  the  aid  of  a  storage  battery  from  Niagara.  So  the 
storage  battery  served  as  little  as  compressed  air  to  solve 
the  engineer's  problem. 

When  the  electric  dynamo  became  a  commercial 
success  for  such  purposes  as  the  operation  of  trolley 
lines  it  seemed  as  if  the  Niagara  problem  was  on  the 
verge  of  solution.  And  so,  in  point  of  fact,  it  really  was, 
though  more  time  was  required  for  it  than  at  first 
seemed  needed.  The  power  generated  by  the  dynamo 
could,  indeed,  be  transmitted  along  a  wire,  but  not 
without  great  loss.  Sir  William  Siemens,  in  1877,  had 
pointed  out  in  connection  with  this  very  subject  of  the 

[195] 


THE   CONQUEST   OF  NATURE 

wasted  power  of  Niagara,  that  a  thousand  horse- 
power might  be  transmitted  a  distance  of,  say,  thirty 
miles  over  a  copper  rod  three  inches  in  diameter.  But 
a  copper  rod  three  inches  in  diameter  is  enormously 
expensive,  and  when  Siemens  further  stated  that  sixty 
per  cent  of  the  power  involved  would  be  lost  in  trans- 
mission, it  was  obvious  that  the  method  was  far  too 
wasteful  to  be  commercially  practicable. 

For  a  time  the  experimenters  with  the  transmission  of 
electricity  along  a  wire  were  on  the  wrong  track.  They 
were  experimenting  with  a  continuous  current  which, 
as  we  have  seen,  is  produced  from  an  ordinary  dynamo 
with  the  aid  of  a  commutator.  But  hosts  of  experiments 
finally  made  it  clear  that  this  form  of  current,  no  matter 
how  powerful  it  might  be,  is  unable  to  traverse  consider- 
able distance  without  great  loss,  being  frittered  away  in 
the  form  of  heat. 

But  the  very  term  "continuous  current"  implies  the 
existence  of  a  current  that  is  not  continuous.  In  point 
of  fact,  we  have  already  seen  that  a  dynamo,  if  not  sup- 
plied with  a  commutator,  will  produce  what  is  called  an 
alternating  current,  and  such  a  current  has  long  been 
known  to  possess  properties  peculiar  to  itself.  It  is, 
in  effect,  an  interrupted  current,  and  it  is  sometimes 
spoken  of  as  if  it  really  consisted  of  an  alternation  of 
currents  which  move  first  in  one  direction  and  then  in 
another.  Such  a  conception  is  not  really  justifiable. 
The  more  plausible  explanation  is  that  the  alternating 
current  is  one  in  which  the  electrons  are  not  evenly  dis- 
tributed and  move  with  irregular  motion.  Perhaps  we 
may  think  of  the  individual  electrons  of  such  a  current  as 

[196] 


NIAGARA  IN   HARNESS 

oscillating  in  their  flight,  and,  as  it  were,  boring  their 
way  into  the  resisting  medium.  In  any  event,  expe- 
rience shows  that  such  a  current,  under  proper  condi- 
tions, may  be  able  to  traverse  a  conducting  wire  for  a 
long  distance  with  relatively  small  loss. 

It  must  be  understood,  however,  that  the  mere  fact 
that  a  current  alternates  is  not  in  itself  sufficient  to 
make  feasible  its  transmission  to  a  remote  distance. 
To  meet  all  the  requirements  a  current  must  be  of  very 
high  voltage.  This  means,  in  so  far  as  we  can  represent 
the  conditions  of  one  form  of  energy  in  the  terms  of 
another,  that  it  shall  be  under  high  pressure.  Fortunately 
a  relatively  simple  apparatus  enables  the  electrician  to 
transform  a  current  from  low  to  high  voltage  without 
difficulty.  And  so  at  last  the  problem  of  transmitting 
power  to  a  distance  of  many  miles  has  been  solved.  Elec- 
trical currents  representing  thousands  of  horse-power 
are  to-day  transmitted  from  Niagara  Falls  to  the  city  of 
Buffalo  over  ordinary  wires,  with  a  loss  that  is  relatively 
insignificant.  A  plant  is  in  process  of  construction  that 
will  similarly  transmit  the  power  to  Toronto;  and  it  is 
predicted  that  in  the  near  future  the  powers  of  Niagara 
will  be  drawn  upon  by  the  factories  of  cities  even  as  far 
distant  as  New  York  and  Chicago.  Practical  difficul- 
ties still  stand  in  the  way  of  such  very  distant  trans- 
mission, to  be  sure,  but  these  are  matters  of  detail,  and 
are  almost  certain  to  be  overcome  in  the  near  future. 

All  this  being  explained,  it  will  be  understood  that 
the  sole  reason  why  the  new  power-houses  at  Niagara 
generate  electricity  is  that  electricity  is  the  one  readily 
transportable  carrier  of  energy.  We  have  already  ex- 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

plained  that  there  is  loss  of  energy  when  the  steam 
engine  operates  the  dynamo.  At  Niagara,  of  course,  no 
steam  is  involved ;  it  is  the  energy  of  falling  water  that  is 
transformed  into  the  energy  of  the  electrical  current. 
Moreover,  the  revolving  dynamo  is  attached  to  the  same 
shaft  with  the  turbine  water-wheel,  so  that  there  is  no 
loss  through  the  interposition  of  gearing.  Yet  even  so, 
the  electric  current  that  flows  from  the  dynamo  repre- 
sents somewhat  less  of  energy  than  the  water  current 
that  flows  into  the  turbine.  This  loss,  however,  is  com- 
pensated a  thousandfold  by  the  fact  that  the  energy  of 
the  electric  current  may  now  be  distributed  in  obedience 
to  man's  will. 


"STEP  UP"  AND  "STEP  DOWN"  TRANSFORMERS 

The  dynamos  in  operation  at  Niagara  do  not  differ  in 
principle  from  those  in  the  street-car  power-house,  ex- 
cept in  the  fact  that  they  are  not  supplied  with  commuta- 
tors. We  have  seen  that  these  dynamos  are  of  enor- 
mous size.  Those  already  in  operation  generate  five 
thousand  horse-power;  others  in  process  of  construction 
will  develop  ten  thousand.  The  generator  which  pro- 
duces this  enormous  current  is  about  eleven  feet  in 
diameter,  and  it  makes  two  hundred  and  fifty  revolu- 
tions per  minute.  The  armatures  are  so  wound  that  the 
result  is. an  alternating  current  of  electricity  of  twenty- 
two  hundred  volts.  This  current  represents,  it  has  been 
said,  raw  material  which  is  to  be  variously  transformed 
as  it  is  supplied  to  different  uses.  To  factories  near  at 
hand,  indeed,  the  current  of  twenty-two  hundred  volts 

[198] 


ELECTRICAL  TRANSFORMERS. 


The  upper  figure  shows  Ferranti's  experimental  transformer  built  in  1888.  It 
has  a  closed  iron  circuit,  built  up  of  thin  strips  filling  the  interior  of  the  coil  and 
having  their  ends  bent  over  and  overlapping  outside.  The  lower  figure  shows  a 
simple  transformer  known  as  Sturgeon's  induction  coil.  The  middle  figure  gives  a 
view  of  the  series  of  converters  in  the  power  house  of  the  Manhattan  Elevated 
Railway. 


NIAGARA   IN   HARNESS 

is  supplied  unchanged ;  but  for  more  distant  consump- 
tion it  is  raised  to  ten  thousand  volts;  and  that  por- 
tion which  is  sent  away  to  the  factories  of  Buffalo  and 
other  equally  distant  places  is  raised  to  twenty-two 
thousand  volts. 

The  -  transformation  from  a  relatively  low  voltage 
to  the  high  one  is  effected  by  means  of  what  is  called  a 
step-up  transformer.  This  is  an  apparatus  which  brings 
into  play  a  principle  of  electric  induction  not  very  dif- 
ferent from  that  which  was  responsible  for  the  genera- 
tion of  the  current  of  electricity  in  the  dynamo.  The 
principle  is  that  evidenced  in  the  familiar  laboratory 
apparatus  known  as  the  Ruhmkorff  coil.  The  trans- 
former consists  essentially  of  a  primary  coil  of  relatively 
large  wire,  surrounded  by,  but  insulated  from,  a  second- 
ary coil  of  relatively  fine  wire.  When  the  interrupted 
current  is  sent  through  the  primary  coil  of  such  an  ap- 
paratus, an  induced  counter-current  is  generated  in  the 
secondary  coil.  Of  course  there  is  no  gain  in  the  actual 
quantity  of  electricity,  but  the  voltage  of  the  current 
generated  in  the  finer  wire  is  greatly  increased.  For 
example,  as  we  have  seen,  the  current  that  came  from 
the  dynamo  at  twenty-two  hundred  volts  is  raised  to 
ten  thousand  or  twenty-two  thousand  volts.  These 
proportions  may  be  varied  indefinitely  by  varying  the 
relative  sizes  and  lengths  of  the  primary  and  secondary 
coils. 

How  shall  we  picture  to  ourselves  the  actual  change 
in  the  current  represented  by  this  difference  in  voltage  ? 
We  might  prove,  readily  enough,  that  the  difference  is  a 
real  one,  since  a  wire  carrying  a  current  of  low  voltage 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

may  be  handled  with  impunity,  while  a  similar  wire 
carrying  a  current  of  high  voltage  may  not  safely  be 
touched.  But  when  we  attempt  to  visualize  the  dif- 
ference in  the  two  currents  we  are  all  at  sea.  We  may 
suppose,  of  course,  that  electrons  spread  out  over  a  long 
stretch  of  the  secondary  coil  must  be  more  widely  scat- 
tered. One  can  conceive  that  the  electrons,  thus  rela- 
tively unimpeded,  may  acquire  a  momentum,  and  hence 
a  penetrative  power,  which  they  retain  after  they  are 
crowded  together  in  a  straight  conductor.  But  this  sug- 
gestion at  best  merely  hazards  a  guess. 

Arrived  at  the  other  end  of  its  journey,  the  current 
which  travels  under  this  high  voltage  is  retransformed 
into  a  low-voltage  current  by  means  of  an  apparatus 
which  simply  reverses  the  conditions  of  the  step-up 
transformer,  and  which,  therefore,  is  called  a  step- 
down  transformer.  The  electricity  which  came  to 
Buffalo  as  a  twenty-two-thousand-volt  current  is  thus 
reduced  by  any  desired  amount  before  it  is  applied  to 
the  practical  purposes  for  which  it  is  designed.  It  may, 
for  example,  be  "  stepped-down "  to  two  thousand  volts 
to  supply  the  main  wires  of  an  electric- lighting  plant; 
and  then  again  "  stepped-down "  to  two  hundred  volts 
to  supply  the  electric  lamps  of  an  individual  house. 

Who  that  reads  by  the  light  of  one  of  these  electric 
lamps,  let  us  say  in  Buffalo,  and  realizes  that  he  is  read- 
ing by  the  transformed  energy  of  Niagara  River,  dare 
affirm  that  in  our  day  there  is  nothing  new  under  the 
sun? 


[200] 


XI 

THE   BANISHMENT  OF   NIGHT 

ONE  great  fundamental  advantage  that  man  has 
won  over  the  other  animals  is  that  although  by 
nature  a  diurnal  animal  he  has  made  night  al- 
most equally  subject  to  his  dominion  through  the  use  of 
artificial  light.  He  thus  establishes  an  average  day  of 
sixteen  or  eighteen  hours  in  place  of  the  twelve-hour  day 
within  which  his  activities  would  otherwise  be  restricted. 
Of  course  this  conquest  of  the  night  began  at  an  early 
stage  of  the  human  development,  since  a  certain  familiar- 
ity with  the  uses  of  fire  was  attained  long  before  man 
came  out  of  the  ages  of  savagery.  But  when  the  transi- 
tion had  been  made  from  the  primitive  torch  to  the 
simplest  type  of  lamp,  there  was  for  many  centuries  a 
cessation  of  progress  in  this  direction,  and  it  remained 
for  comparatively  recent  generations  to  provide  more 
efficient  methods  of  lighting.  Indeed,  the  culminating 
achievements  are  matters  which  make  the  most  recent 
history.  It  is  the  purpose  of  the  ensuing  pages  to  nar- 
rate the  story  of  the  successive  practical  achievements 
through  which  man  has  been  enabled  virtually  to  turn 
night  into  day. 

[201] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

PRIMITIVE  TORCH  AND  OPEN  LAMP 

To  moderns,  in  an  age  when  even  the  time-honored 
gas  jets  and  kerosene  lamps  are  regarded  as  obsolescent, 
that  ancient  form  of  illuminant,  the  candle,  seems  about 
the  most  primitive  form  of  light-producing  apparatus. 
In  point  of  fact,  however,  the  candle  holds  no  such 
place  in  the  chronological  order  of  lighting-device  dis- 
co very,  being  a  relatively  late  innovation.  Indeed,  lamps 
of  various  kinds,  even  those  burning  petroleum,  were 
used  thousands  of  years  before  the  relatively  clean  and 
effective  candle  was  invented. 

The  camp  fires  of  primitive  man  must  have  suggested 
the  use  of  a  fire-brand  for  lighting  purposes  almost  as 
soon  as  the  discovery  of  fire  itself;  but  the  development 
of  any  means  of  lighting  his  caves  or  rude  huts,  even  in 
the  form  of  torches,  was  probably  a  slow  process.  For 
our  earliest  ancestors  were  not  the  nocturnal  creatures 
their  descendants  became  early  in  the  history  of  civiliza- 
tion. To  them  the  period  of  darkness  was  the  time  for 
sleeping,  and  their  waking  hours  were  those  between 
dawn  and  dusk.  It  was  only  when  man  had  reached  a 
relatively  high  plane  above  the  other  members  of  the 
animal  kingdom,  therefore,  that  he  would  wish  to  pro- 
long the  daylight,  and  then  the  use  of  the  torch  made  of 
some  resinous  wood  would  naturally  suggest  itself. 

Just  when  the  ancient  lamp  was  invented  in  the  form 
of  a  vessel  filled  with  oil  into  which  some  kind  of  wick 
was  dipped,  cannot  be  ascertained,  but  its  invention 
certainly  antedated  the  Christian  Era  by  several  cen- 
turies. And  it  is  equally  certain  that  once  this  smoky, 

[202] 


THE  BANISHMENT   OF   NIGHT 

foul-smelling  lamp  had  been  discovered,  it  remained  in 
use,  practically  without  change  or  improvement,  until 
the  end  of  the  twelfth  century,  the  date  of  the  inven- 
tion of  the  candle.  Such  lamps  were  used  by  the  Greeks 
and  Romans,  great  quantities  of  them  being  still  pre- 
served. They  were  simply  shallow,  saucer-like  vessels 
for  holding  the  oil,  into  which  the  wick  was  laid,  so  ar- 
ranged that  the  upper  end  rested  against  the  edge  of  the 
vessel.  Here  the  oil  burned  and  smoked,  capillarity 
supplying  oil  to  the  burning  end  of  the  wick,  which  was 
pulled  up  from  time  to  time  as  it  became  shortened  by 
burning,  either  with  pincers  made  for  the  purpose,  or 
perhaps  more  frequently  by  the  ever  useful  hairpin  of 
the  matron. 

As  the  thick  wick  did  not  allow  the  air  to  penetrate 
to  burn  the  carbon  of  the  oil  completely,  a  nauseous 
smoke  was  given  off  constantly  which  was  stifling  when 
a  draught  of  air  prevented  its  escape  through  the  hole  in 
the  roof — the  only  chimney  used  by  the  Greeks.  And 
since  this  was  the  only  kind  of  lamp  known  at  the  time, 
the  palace  of  the  Roman  Emperor  and  hut  of  the  Roman 
peasant  were  necessarily  alike  in  their  methods  of  lighting 
if  in  little  else.  The  Emperor's  lamps  might  be  modeled 
of  gold  and  set  with  precious  stones,  while  those  of  the 
peasant  were  of  rudely  modeled  clay;  but  each  must 
have  evoked,  along  with  its  dim  light,  an  unwholesome 
modicum  of  smoke  and  malodor. 

It  was  this  form  of  lamp,  practically  unaltered  ex- 
cept occasionally  in  design,  that  remained  in  common  use 
during  the  Middle  Ages;  and  when,  at  the  close  of  the 
twelfth  century,  the  " tallow  candle"  was  invented, 

[203] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

that  now  despised  device  must  have  been  almost  as 
revolutionary  in  its  effect  as  the  incandescent  burner 
and  the  electric  bulb  were  destined  to  be  in  a  more  recent 
generation.  It  burned  with  dazzling  brilliancy  in  com- 
parison with  the  oil  lamp ;  it  gave  off  no  smoke  and  little 
smell;  it  needed  no  care,  and  it  occupied  little  space. 
Then  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  world  reason- 
ably good  house  illumination  became  possible.  Several 
additional  centuries  elapsed,  however,  before  the  idea 
was  developed  of  placing  a  candle  in  a  covered  glass- 
sided  receptacle,  to  form  a  lantern  or  a  street  lamp. 

For  generations  the  candle  held  supreme  place, 
though  its  cost  made  it  something  of  a  luxury;  doubly  so 
if  wax  was  substituted  for  tallow  in  its  composition. 
But  toward  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  when 
the  action  of  combustion  had  begun  to  be  better  under- 
stood, attempts  were  made  to  improve  the  wicks  and 
burners  of  oil  lamps.  In  1 783,  an  inventor  named  Leger, 
of  Paris,  produced  a  burner  using  a  broad,  flat,  ribbon- 
like  wick  in  which  practically  every  part  of  the  oil 
supply  was  brought  into  contact  with  the  air,  producing, 
therefore,  a  steady  flame  relatively  free  from  smoke. 
The  flame,  while  broad,  was  extremely  thin,  and  its 
light  was  consequently  radiated  very  unevenly.  Por- 
tions of  a  room  lying  in  the  direction  of  the  long  axis  of 
the  flame  were  but  poorly  lighted.  To  overcome  this 
difficulty,  a  curved  form  of  burner  was  adopted;  and 
this  led  eventually  to  the  invention  of  the  circular  Ar- 
gand  burner,  the  prototype  of  the  best  modern  lamp- 
burners. 

[204] 


THE   BANISHMENT  OF  NIGHT 

TALLOW  CANDLE  AND  PERFECTED  OIL  LAMP 

Stated  in  scientific  terms,  the  problem  of  the  ideal 
lamp-wick  resolves  itself  into  a  question  of  how  to 
supply  oxygen  to  every  portion  of  the  flame  in  sufficient 
quantities  to  bring  all  the  carbon  particles  to  a  tempera- 
ture at  which  they  are  luminous.  It  occurred  to  Argand 
that  this  could  be  done  by  giving  the  wick  a  circular  form 
like  a  cylindrical  tube,  giving  the  air  free  access  to  the 
centre  of  the  tube  as  well  as  to  its  outer  surface.  In  his 
lamp  the  reservoir  of  oil  was  placed  at  a  little  distance 
from,  and  slightly  above,  the  tube  holding  the  burner, 
connected  with  it  by  a  small  tube  much  as  the  tank  of 
the  modern  "student  lamp"  connects  with  the  burner. 
In  this  manner  a  fairly  good  lamp  was  produced, — a 
decided  improvement  over  any  made  heretofore,— 
and  when,  in  1765,  Quinquet  added  a  glass  chimney  to 
this  lamp  a  new  epoch  of  artificial  lighting  was  inaugu- 
rated. "  This  date  is  of  as  much  importance  in  artificial 
lighting  as  is  1789  in  politics,"  says  one  writer.  "  Be- 
tween the  ancient  lamps  and  the  lamps  of  Quinquet 
there  is  as  much  difference  as  between  the  chimney-place 
of  our  parlors  and  the  fireplaces  of  our  original  Aryan 
ancestors,  formed  by  a  hole  dug  in  the  ground  in  the 
centre  of  their  cabins." 

A  little  later  Carcel  still  further  improved  the  Quin- 
quet lamp  by  adapting  a  clock  movement  that  forced 
the  oil  to  rise  to  the  wick,  so  that  it  was  no  longer  neces- 
sary to  have  the  burner  and  the  reservoir  separated  by  a 
tube.  This  was  still  further  improved  upon  by  substi- 
tuting a  spring  for  the  clockwork,  the  result  being  a  lamp 

[205] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

of  great  simplicity,  yet  one  which  gave  such  results  that 
it  replaced  the  candle  as  a  unit  for  measuring  the  illumi- 
nating power  of  different  sources  of  light. 

These  various  burners  should  not  be  confused  with 
the  modern  burners  of  the  ordinary  kerosene  lamps. 
Mineral  oils  had  not  as  yet  come  into  use  for  illumi- 
nating purposes,  except  as  torches  or  in  simple  lamps  like 
those  of  the  Romans,  as  refining  processes  had  not  been 
perfected,  and  the  smoke  and  odors  from  crude  petro- 
leum were  absolutely  intolerable  in  closed  rooms. 

Many  other  substances  were  tried  in  place  of  the  heavy 
oils,  such  as  the  volatile  hydrocarbons  and  alcohols,  but 
with  no  great  success.  Early  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury a  lamp  burning  turpentine,  under  the  name  of 
"camphine,"  was  invented  that  gave  a  good  light  and 
was  smokeless;  but  like  most  others  of  its  type,  it  was 
dangerous  owing  to  its  liability  to  explode.  And  it 
was  not  until  methods  of  refining  petroleum  had  been 
improved  that  "mineral-oil  lamps" — the  predecessors 
of  the  modern  type  of  lamps — came  into  use. 

The  invention  of  this  type  of  lamp  was  a  relatively 
easy  task — a  simple  transition  and  adaptation  as  proc- 
esses of  refining  the  oil  were  perfected.  The  principle 
of  combustion  was,  of  course,  the  same  as  in  the  Argand 
type  of  lamps  burning  animal  and  vegetable  oils;  but 
mineral  oils  are  of  such  consistency  that  capillarity 
causes  an  abundant  supply  of  oil  to  rise  in  the  wick,  so 
that  clockwork  and  spring  devices,  such  as  were  used 
in  the  Carcel  lamps,  could  be  dispensed  with. 


[206] 


THE   BANISHMENT  OF   NIGHT 

GAS  LIGHTING 

While  the  rivalry  between  the  candle  and  the  new 
forms  of  lamps  was  at  its  height,  and  just  as  the  lamp 
was  gaining  complete  supremacy,  a  new  method  of 
artificial  illumination  was  discovered  that  was  destined 
to  eclipse  all  others  for  half  a  century,  and  then  finally 
to  succumb  to  a  still  better  form.  As  early  as  the  be- 
ginning of  the  eighteenth  century  the  Rev.  Joseph 
Clayton,  in  England,  had  made  experiments  in  the 
distillation  of  coal,  producing  a  gas  that  was  inflam- 
mable. A  little  later  Dr.  Stephen  Hales  published  his 
work  on  Vegetable  Staticks,  in  which  he  described  the 
process  of  distilling  coal  in  which  a  definite  amount  of 
gas  could  be  obtained  from  a  given  quantity  of  coal. 

No  practical  use  was  made  of  this  discovery,  however, 
until  over  half  a  century  later.  But  just  at  the  close  of 
the  century  a  Scot,  William  Murdoch,  became  interested 
in  the  possibilities  of  gases  as  illuminants,  and  finally 
demonstrated  that  coal  gas  could  be  put  to  practical 
use.  In  1798,  being  employed  in  the  workshops  of 
Boulton  and  Watt  in  Birmingham,  he  fitted  up  an  ap- 
paratus in  which  he  manufactured  gas,  lighting  the  work- 
shops by  means  of  jets  connected  by  tubes  with  this 
primitive  plant.  Shortly  after  this,  a  Frenchman,  M. 
Lebon,  lighted  his  house  in  Paris  with  gas  distilled  from 
wood,  and  the  Parisians  soon  became  interested  in  the 
new  illuminant.  England  seems  to  have  been  the  first 
country  to  use  it  extensively  in  public  buildings,  however, 
the  London  Lyceum  Theatre  being  lighted  with  gas  in 
1803.  By  1810  the  great  Gas-Light  and  Coke  Company 

[207] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

was  formed,  and  within  the  next  five  years  gas  street- 
lamps  had  become  familiar  objects  in  the  streets  of 
London,  and  house  illumination  by  this  means  a  com- 
mon thing  among  the  wealthier  classes. 

In  the  early  days  of  gas-lighting  the  results  were 
frequently  disappointing,  because  no  suitable  and 
efficient  type  of  burner  had  been  devised;  but  in  1820 
Neilson  of  Glasgow  discovered  the  principle  of  the 
now  familiar  flat  burner,  of  which  more  examples  still 
remain  in  use  the  world  over  than  of  all  other  kinds 
combined.  Indeed,  this  simple,  but  as  we  now  regard 
it,  inefficient  burner,  would  probably  have  remained  the 
best-known  type  for  many  years  longer  than  it  did  had 
not  the  possibilities  of  lighting  by  electricity  aroused 
persons  interested  in  the  great  gas-plants  to  the  fact 
that  the  new  illuminant  was  jeopardizing  their  enormous 
investments;  making  it  clear  that  they  must  bestir 
themselves  and  improve  their  flat  burners  if  they  would 
arrest  disaster.  To  be  sure,  several  modifications  of  the 
round  Argand  burner  had  been  introduced  from  time 
to  time,  some  of  them  being  a  distinct  improvement 
over  the  flat  burner,  but  these  did  not  by  any  means 
seriously  compete  with  electric  light.  And  it  was  not  un- 
til the  incandescent  mantle  was  perfected  that  gas  as  a 
brilliant  illuminant  was  able  to  make  a  stand  against 
its  new  competitor. 

THE  INCANDESCENT  GAS  MANTLE 

It  has  been  known  almost  since  the  beginnings  of 
civilization  that  all  solids  can  be  made  to  emit  light 

[208] 


THE   BANISHMENT  OF  NIGHT 

when  heated  to  certain  temperatures.  Some  sub- 
stances were  known  to  be  peculiarly  adapted  to  this 
purpose,  such  as  lumps  of  lime,  and  for  many  years  the 
calcium  light  or  "lime-light"  as  it  is  popularly  called, 
had  been  in  use  for  special  purposes,  and  was  the  most 
intense  light  known.  This  light  is  made  by  heating 
a  block  of  lime  to  the  highest  practicable  temperature 
by  means  of  a  blast  of  oxygen  and  coal  gas;  but  such 
lights  were  too  complicated  and  expensive  for  general 
purposes.  It  had  been  determined  even  as  early  as  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  however,  that  the 
high  temperature  necessary  for  producing  this  light 
was  due  in  part  at  least  to  the  fact  that  such  a  large 
amount  of  material  had  to  be  raised  to  incandescence. 
It  was  evident,  therefore,  that  if  a  small  amount  of  some 
such  substance  as  lime  and  magnesia  could  be  spread 
out  so  as  to  present  a  large  surface  in  a  small  space,  such 
as  is  represented  by  basket-work,  sufficient  heat  for 
making  it  incandescent  might  be  obtained  from  an 
ordinary  gas-and-air  blowpipe. 

Here  then  was  the  germ  of  the  " mantle"  idea;  and 
such  an  apparatus,  known  as  the  Clamond  mantle, 
which  was  made  of  threads  of  calcined  magnesia,  was 
shown  at  the  Crystal  Palace  Exhibition,  in  London, 
in  1882.  Curiously  enough,  this  mantle  and  burner 
worked  in  an  inverted  position,  the  mantle  being  sus- 
pended bottom  upwards  below  the  burner  through 
which  the  blast  of  gas  was  forced.  The  light  given  by 
this  mantle  was  most  brilliant — little  short  of  the  older 
calcium  light,  in  fact — but  the  device  itself  was  too 
complicated  to  be  of  service  for  ordinary  lighting 
VOL.  vi.— 14  [  209  ] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

purposes.  The  principle  was  correct,  but  the  construc- 
tion of  the  mantle  was  defective. 

Meanwhile  a  German  scientist,  Dr.  Auer  von  Wels- 
bach,  who  had  become  famous  in  the  scientific  world 
for  his  researches  on  rare  metals,  was  experimenting 
with  certain  oxides  of  different  metals,  and  developing 
a  method  of  handling  them  that  finally  resulted  in  the 
perfected  incandescent  burner  in  use  at  present.  His 
process,  which  in  theory  at  least  was  not  entirely  original 
with  him,  was  to  dip  an  open  fabric  of  cotton  into  a 
solution  of  the  nitrates  of  the  metals  to  be  used,  drying 
it,  and  converting  the  nitrates  into  oxides  by  burning; 
the  cotton  fabric  disappearing  but  leaving  the  skeleton 
of  the  oxide,  which  retained  its  original  shape. 

At  the  same  time  corresponding  improvements  were 
made  in  the  type  of  burner,  which  is  quite  as  essential 
to  success  as  the  mantle  itself.  It  had  been  found  that 
it  was  absolutely  essential  for  such  a  burner  to  give  a 
practically  non-luminous  flame,  as  otherwise  the  deposit 
of  carbon  particles  will  ruin  the  mantle.  Two  ways  of 
obtaining  this  are  possible;  one  by  mixing  a  certain 
quantity  of  air  with  the  gas  before  combustion,  the  other 
to  burn  the  gas  in  so  thin  a  flame  that  the  air  permeates 
it  freely.  Several  burners  of  both  types  were  used  at 
first,  but  gradually  the  burners  in  which  the  air  is 
mixed  with  the  gas  became  the  more  popular,  and  most 
of  the  incandescent  burners  now  on  the  market  are  of 
this  type. 

In  the  construction  of  mantles  at  the  present  time, 
while  the  principle  of  their  use  remains  the  same  as  that 
of  the  lime-light,  lime  itself  is  not  used,  the  oxides  of 

[210] 


THE   BANISHMENT  OF  NIGHT 

certain  other  metals  having  proved  better  adapted  for 
the  purpose.  Thus  the  Welsbach  patent  of  1886  covered 
the  use  of  thoria,  either  alone  or  mixed  with  other  sub- 
stances such  as  zirconia,  alumina,  magnesia,  etc.; 
thoria  being  considered  as  having  a  very  high  power  of 
light  emission.  Later  it  was  discovered  that  pure  thoria 
emits  very  little  light  by  itself,  although  it  possesses 
a  refractory  nature  that  gives  a  stability  to  the  mantle 
unequalled  by  any  other  material  as  yet  discovered. 
When  combined  with  a  small  trace  of  the  oxides  of  cer- 
tain rare  metals,  however,  such  as  uranium,  terbium, 
or  cerium,  thoria  mantles  have  a  very  high  power  of 
light  emission,  most  modern  mantles  being  composed 
of  about  ninety-nine  per  cent,  thoria  with  one  per  cent, 
cerium. 

In  the  ordinary  method  of  manufacturing  such 
mantles,  a  cotton-net  cylinder  about  eight  inches  long, 
more  or  less  according  to  the  size  of  mantle  required, 
is  made,  one  end  being  contracted  by  an  asbestos  thread. 
A  loop  of  the  same  material,  or  in  some  cases  a  platinum 
wire,  is  fastened  across  the  opening,  to  be  used  for 
suspending  the  mantle  when  in  use.  The  cotton-thread 
cylinder  is  soaked  in  a  solution  of  the  nitrates  of  the 
metals  thorium  and  cerium,  and  is  then  wrung  out  to 
remove  the  excess,  stretched  on  a  conical  mold,  and 
dried.  The  flame  of  an  atmospheric  burner  being  ap- 
plied to  the  upper  part  at  the  constricted  position,  the 
burning  extends  downward,  converting  the  nitrates 
into  oxides,  and  removing  the  organic  matter.  Con- 
siderable skill  is  required  in  this  part  of  the  process,  as 
the  regular  shape  of  the  mantle  is  largely  dependent 

[211] 


THE   CONQUEST   OF   NATURE 

upon  the  regularity  of  the  burning.  As  a  finishing  process 
a  flame  is  applied  to  the  inside  of  the  mantle  after  it  has 
cooled,  to  remove  all  traces  of  carbon  that  may  remain. 

The  mantle  is  now  ready  for  use,  but  is  so  fragile  that 
it  can  scarcely  be  touched  without  breaking,  and  such 
handling  as  would  be  necessary  for  shipment  would  be 
out  of  the  question.  It  is  therefore  strengthened  tem- 
porarily by  being  dipped  into  a  mixture  of  collodion  and 
castor  oil,  which,  when  dry,  forms  a  firm  but  elastic 
jacket  surrounding  all  parts.  It  is  this  collodion  jacket 
that  is  burned  away  when  the  new  mantle  is  placed  on 
the  burner  before  the  gas  is  turned  on. 

Quite  recently  the  method  of  manufacturing  mantles 
used  by  Clamond  has  been  revived.  In  this  method  the 
cotton  thread  is  dispensed  with,  the  thread  used  being 
made  from  a  paste  containing  the  mantle  material  itself. 
The  paste  is  placed  in  a  proper  receptacle  the  bottom 
of  which  is  perforated  with  minute  openings,  and  sub- 
jected to  pressure,  squeezing  out  the  material  in  long 
filaments.  When  dry  these  are  wound  on  bobbins, 
and,  after  being  treated  by  certain  chemical  processes, 
are  ready  for  weaving  into  mantles.  It  is  claimed  for 
mantles  made  on  this  principle  that  they  last  much 
longer  and  retain  their  light-emitting  power  more  uni- 
formly than  mantles  made  by  the  older  process. 

THE  INTRODUCTION  OF  ACETYLENE  GAS 

When  the  incandescent  mantle  had  been  perfected 
so  as  to  be  an  economical  as  well  an  as  efficient  light- 
giver,  the  position  of  coal  gas  as  an  illuminant  seemed 

[212] 


THE   BANISHMENT   OF   NIGHT 

again  secured  against  the  encroachments  of  its  rrvals, 
the  arc  and  incandescent  electric  lights.  But  just  at  this 
time  another  rival  appeared  in  the  field  that  not  only 
menaced  the  mantle  lamp  but  the  arc  and  incandescent 
light  as  well.  Curiously  enough,  this  new  rival,  acetylene 
gas,  had  been  brought  into  existence  commercially  by 
the  electric  arc  itself.  For  although  it  had  been  known 
as  a  possible  illuminant  for  many  years,  the  calcium 
carbide  for  producing  it  could  not  be  manufactured 
economically  until  the  advent  of  the  electric  furnace, 
itself  the  outcome  of  Davy's  arc  light. 

Even  as  early  as  1836  an  English  chemist  had  made 
the  discovery  that  one  of  the  by-products  of  the  manu- 
facture of  metallic  potassium  would  decompose  water 
and  evolve  a  gas  containing  acetylene;  and  this  was 
later  observed  independently  from  time  to  time  by 
several  chemists  in  different  countries.  No  importance 
was  attached  to  these  discoveries,  however,  and  nothing 
was  done  with  acetylene  as  an  illuminant  until  the  last 
decade  of  the  nineteenth  century.  By  this  time  electric 
furnaces  had  come  into  general  use,  and  it  was  while 
working  with  one  of  these  furnaces  in  1892  that  Mr. 
Thomas  F.  Wilson,  in  preparing  metallic  calcium  from 
a  mixture  of  lime  and  coal,  produced  a  peculiar  mass  of 
dark-colored  material,  calcium  carbide,  which,  when 
thrown  into  water,  evolved  a  gas  with  an  extremely  dis- 
agreeable odor.  When  lighted,  this  gas  burned  with 
astonishing  brilliancy,  and,  as  its  cost  of  production 
was  extremely  small,  the  idea  of  utilizing  it  for  illu- 
minating was  at  once  conceived  and  put  into  practice. 

The  secret  of  the  cheap  manufacture  of  the  carbide 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

lies  in  the  fact  that  the  extremely  high  temperature 
required — about  4500°  Fahrenheit — can  be  obtained 
economically  in  the  electric  furnace,  but  not  otherwise. 
Thus  electricity  created  its  own  greatest  rival  as  an 
illuminant.  It  followed  naturally  that  the  ideal  place 
for  manufacturing  the  carbide  would  be  at  the  source 
of  the  cheapest  supply  of  electricity,  and  as  the  "  har- 
nessed" Niagara  Falls  represented  the  cheapest  source 
of  electric  supply,  this  place  soon  became  the  centre  of 
the  carbide  industry.  Here  the  process  of  manufacture  is 
carried  out  on  an  enormous  scale.  In  practice,  lime 
and  ground  coke  are  thoroughly  mixed  in  the  propor- 
tion of  about  fifty-six  parts  of  lime  to  thirty-six  parts 
of  coke.  When  this  mixture  has  been  subjected  to  the 
heat  of  the  electric  furnace  for  a  short  time  an  ingot  of 
pure  calcium  carbide  is  formed,  surrounded  by  a  crust 
of  less  pure  material.  The  ingot  and  crust  together 
represent  sixty-four  parts  of  the  original  ninety-two 
parts  of  lime  and  coke,  the  remaining  twenty-eight 
parts  being  liberated  as  carbon-monoxide  gas. 

Calcium  carbide  as  produced  by  this  process  is  a 
dark-brown  crystalline  substance  which  may  be  heated 
to  redness  without  danger  or  change.  It  will  not  burn 
except  when  heated  in  oxygen,  and  will  keep  indefinitely 
if  sealed  from  the  air.  Chemically  it  consists  of  one 
atom  of  lime  combined  with  two  atoms  of  carbon 
(CaC2) ;  and  to  produce  acetylene  gas,  which  is  a  com- 
bination of  carbon  and  hydrogen  (C2H2)  it  is  only  neces- 
sary to  bring  it  into  contact  with  water,  acetylene  gas 
and  slaked  lime  being  formed.  One  pound  of  pure 
carbide  will  produce  five  and  one  half  cubic  feet  of  gas 


THE   BANISHMENT   OF   NIGHT 

of  greater  illuminating  power  than  any  other  known 
gas.  The  flame  is  absolutely  white  and  of  blinding 
brilliancy,  giving  a  spectrum  closely  approximating 
that  of  sunlight.  The  light  is  so  strongly  actinic  that  it 
is  excellent  for  photography. 

Here  was  a  gas  that  could  be  made  in  any  desired 
quantities  simply  by  adding  water  to  a  substance  costing 
only  about  three  cents  a  pound ;  its  cost  of  production, 
therefore,  representing  only  about  one  sixth  of  the 
dollar-per-thousand-feet  rate  usually  charged  for  il- 
luminating gas  in  our  cities.  It  could  be  used  in  lamps 
and  lanterns  made  with  special  burners  and  with  the 
simple  mechanism  of  a  small  water  tank  which  allowed 
water  to  drip  into  a  receptacle  holding  the  carbide;  or 
—reversing  the  process — an  apparatus  that  dropped 
pieces  of  carbide  into  the  water  tanks.  It  was,  in  short, 
the  cheapest  illuminant  known,  generated  by  an  appara- 
tus that  was  simplicity  itself. 

There  were,  however,  two  defects  in  this  gas:  its 
odor  was  intolerable — the  "smell  of  decayed  garlic," 
it  has  been  aptly  called — and  when  mixed  with  air  it 
was  highly  explosive.  The  first  of  these  defects  could 
be  overcome  easily;  when  the  burner  consumed  all 
the  gas  there  was  no  odor.  The  second,  the  explosive 
quality,  presented  greater  difficulties.  These  were  em- 
phasized and  magnified  by  the  number  of  defective 
lamps  that  soon  flooded  the  market,  many  of  these  being 
so  badly  constructed  that  explosions  were  inevitable. 
As  a  result  a  strong  prejudice  quickly  arose  against 
the  gas,  some  countries  passing  laws  prohibiting  its  use. 

But  further  inquiry  into  the  cause  of  the  frequent  dis- 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

asters  revealed  the  fact  that  when  the  burner  of  a  lamp 
was  constructed  so  that  the  air  for  combustion  was 
supplied  after  the  gas  issued  from  the  jet,  there  was  no 
danger  of  explosion.  And  as  lamps  carefully  con- 
structed on  this  principle  replaced  the  early  ones  of 
faulty  construction,  confidence  in  acetylene  was  restored. 
Methods  were  devised  for  supplying  the  gas  for  house- 
illumination  like  ordinary  gas,  and  the  occupants  of 
country  houses  were  afforded  a  means  of  lighting  their 
houses  on  a  scale  of  brilliancy  hitherto  unapproached, 
yet  with  economy  and  relative  safety. 

It  was  found  also  that  the  brilliancy  of  the  acetylene 
flame  was  of  such  intensity  that  it  could  be  used,  like 
the  electric  arc  light,  as  a  search- light.  It  thus  furnished 
a  simple  means  of  supplying  small  boats  and  vehicles 
with  such  lights,  which  they  could  not  otherwise  have 
had.  It  also  supplied  army  signal- corps  with  an  ap- 
paratus for  flashing  messages — an  apparatus  that  was 
ideal  on  account  of  its  simplicity  and  small  size. 

At  the  Pan-American  Exhibition  at  Buffalo  the 
various  illuminating  exhibits  were  among  the  most  con- 
spicuous and  attractive  features.  But  even  amid  the 
dazzling  electrical  displays  the  Acetylene  Building  was  a 
noteworthy  object.  "It  was  the  most  brilliantly  and 
beautifully  lighted  building  in  the  grounds,"  declared 
one  observer.  "It  sparkled  like  a  diamond,  and  was 
the  admiration  of  all  visitors.  In  it  were  generators  of 
all  types — most  of  them  supplying  the  gas  for  their 
own  exhibits — several  being  the  latest  exponents  of  the 
art,  so  simple  that  they  can  be  safely  managed  by  un- 
skilled labor;  in  fact,  'the  brains  are  in  the  machines,' 

[216] 


THE   BANISHMENT  OF  NIGHT 

and  when  the  attendant  has  charged  them  with  carbide 
and  filled  them  with  water — given  them  food  and  drink— 
they  will  work  steadily  until  they  need  another  meal." 
Indeed,  these  exhibits  at  the  Pan-American  Exhibition 
demonstrated  conclusively  that  acetylene  gas  occupies  a 
field  by  itself  as  a  practical  illuminant. 

At  the  same  exposition  a  standard  was  established  for 
good  stationary  acetylene  generators  for  house-lighting, 
and  the  fact  that  a  large  number  of  generators  fulfilled 
the  requirements  of  the  set  of  rules  laid  down  showed 
how  thoroughly  the  problem  of  handling  this  gas  has 
been  solved.  Some  of  these  rules  used  as  tests  are  in- 
structive to  anyone  interested  in  the  subject,  and  a  few 
of  them  are  given  here.  They  specified,  for  example, 
that— 

"The  carbide  should  be  dropped  into  the  water," 
the  reverse  process  of  letting  the  water  drip  on  the  car- 
bide, as  was  done  in  most  of  the  early  generators,  being 
condemned.  "There  must  be  no  possibility  of  mixing 
air  with  the  acetylene  gas.  Construction  must  be  such 
that  an  addition  to  the  charge  of  carbide  can  be  made  at 
any  time  without  affecting  the  lights.  Generators 
must  be  entirely  automatic  in  their  action — that  is  to 
say:  after  a  generator  has  been  charged,  it  must  need  no 
further  attention  until  the  carbide  has  been  entirely 
exhausted.  The  various  operations  of  discharging  the 
refuse,  filling  with  fresh  water,  charging  with  carbide, 
and  starting  the  generator  must  be  so  simple  that  the 
generator  can  be  tended  by  an  unskilled  workman 
without  danger  of  accident.  When  the  lights  are  out, 
the  generation  of  gas  should  cease.  The  carbide  should 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

be  fed  automatically  into  the  water  in  proportion  to  the 
gas  consumed." 

Perhaps  the  most  significant  thing,  showing  the  stage 
of  progress  that  has  been  made  in  overcoming  the  danger 
of  explosions  from  acetylene  gas,  is  that  the  use  of 
generators  meeting  some  such  requirements  as  the  above 
is  not  prohibited  by  fire  underwriters.  This  in  itself  is 
very  convincing  evidence  of  their  safety. 

THE  TRIUMPH  OF  ELECTRICITY 

Throughout  the  ages  primitive  man  had  had  con- 
stantly before  him  two  sources  of  light  other  than  that 
of  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars.  One  of  these,  the  fire  of 
ordinary  combustion,  he  could  understand  and  utilize; 
the  other,  more  powerful  and  more  terrible,  which  flashed 
across  the  heavens  at  times,  he  could  not  even  vaguely 
understand,  and,  naturally,  did  not  attempt  to  utilize. 
But  early  in  the  seventeenth  century  some  scientific 
discoveries  were  made  which,  although  their  destination 
was  not  even  imagined  at  the  time,  pointed  the.  way 
that  eventually  led  to  man's  imitating  in  the  most  strik- 
ing manner  Nature's  electrical  illumination. 

About  this  time  Otto  von  Guericke,  the  burgomaster- 
philosopher  of  Magdeburg,  in  the  course  of  his  numerous 
experiments,  had  discovered  some  of  the  properties  of 
electricity,  by  rubbing  a  sulphur  ball,  and  among  other 
things  had  noticed  that  when  the  ball  was  rubbed  in  a 
darkened  room,  a  faint  glow  of  light  was  produced.  He 
was  aware,  also,  that  in  some  way  this  was  connected 
with  the  generation  of  electricity,  but  in  what  manner  he 


THE  BANISHMENT  OF   NIGHT 

had  no  conception.  In  the  opening  years  of  the  follow- 
ing century  Francis  Hauksbee  obtained  somewhat 
similar  results  with  glass  globes  and  tubes,  and  made 
several  important  discoveries  as  to  the  properties  of 
electricity  that  stimulated  an  interest  in  the  subject 
among  the  philosophers  of  the  time.  Gray  in  England, 
and  Dufay  in  France,  who  became  enthusiastic  workers 
in  the  field,  soon  established  important  facts  regarding 
conduction  and  insulation,  and  by  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century  the  production  of  an  electric  spark 
had  become  a  commonplace  demonstration. 

But  until  this  time  it  had  not  been  demonstrated  that 
this  electric  spark  was  actual  fire,  although  there  was 
no  disputing  the  fact  that  it  produced  light.  In  1744, 
however,  this  point  was  settled  definitely  by  the 
German,  Christian  Friedrich  Ludolff,  who  projected 
a  spark  from  a  rubbed  glass  rod  upon  the  surface  of  a 
bowl  of  ether,  causing  the  liquid  to  burst  into  flame. 
A  few  years  later  Benjamin  Franklin  demonstrated 
with  his  kite  and  key  that  lightning  is  a  manifestation 
of  electricity. 

But  neither  the  galvanic  cell  nor  the  dynamo  had  been 
invented  at  that  time,  and  there  was  no  possibility  of  pro- 
ducing anything  like  a  sustained  artificial  light  with  the 
static  electrical  machines  then  in  use.  It  was  not  until 
the  classic  discovery  of  Galvani  and  the  resulting  inven- 
tion of  the  voltaic,  or  galvanic,  cell  shortly  after,  that 
the  electric  light,  in  the  sense  of  a  sustained  light,  became 
possible.  And  even  then,  as  we  shall  see  in  a  moment, 
such  a  light  was  too  expensive  to  be  of  any  use  com- 
mercially. 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 


DAVY  AND  THE  FIRST  ELECTRIC  LIGHT 

As  soon  as  Volta's  great  invention  was  made  known 
a  new  wave  of  enthusiasm  in  the  field  of  electricity  swept 
over  the  world,  for  the  constant  and  relatively  tractable 
current  of  the  galvanic  battery  suggested  possibilities 
not  conceivable  with  the  older  friction  machines.  Bat- 
teries containing  large  numbers  of  cells  were  devised; 
one  having  two  thousand  such  elements  being  con- 
structed for  Sir  Humphry  Davy  at  the  Royal  Institu- 
tion, of  London.  By  bringing  two  points  of  carbon, 
representing  the  two  poles  of  the  battery,  close  together, 
Davy  caused  a  jet  of  flame  to  play  between  them — 
not  a  momentary  spark,  but  a  continuous  light — a  true 
voltaic  arc,  like  that  seen  in  the  modern  street-light 
to-day. 

"When  pieces  of  charcoal  about  an  inch  long  and 
one-sixth  of  an  inch  in  diameter  were  brought  near  each 
other  (within  the  thirtieth  or  fortieth  of  an  inch)," 
wrote  Davy  in  describing  this  experiment,  "a  bright 
spark  was  produced,  and  more  than  half  the  volume  of 
charcoal  became  ignited  to  whiteness;  and,  by  with- 
drawing the  points  from  each  other,  a  constant  discharge 
took  place  through  the  heated  air,  in  a  space  equal  to  at 
least  four  inches,  producing  a  most  brilliant  ascending 
arch  of  light,  broad  and  conical  in  form  in  the  middle. 
When  any  substance  was  introduced  into  this  arch,  it 
instantly  became  ignited ;  platina  melted  in  it  as  readily 
as  wax  in  a  common  candle;  quartz,  the  sapphire, 
magnesia,  lime,  all  entered  into  fusion ;  fragments  of  dia- 

[220] 


THE   BANISHMENT  OF  NIGHT 

mond  and  points  of  charcoal  and  plumbago  seemed  to 
evaporate  in  it,  even  when  the  connection  was  made  in 
the  receiver  of  an  air-pump ;  but  there  was  no  evidence 
of  their  having  previously  undergone  fusion.  When 
the  communication  between  the  points  positively  and 
negatively  electrified  was  made  in  the  air  rarefied  in  the 
receiver  of  the  air-pump,  the  distance  at  which  the  dis- 
charge took  place  increased  as  the  exhaustion  was  made ; 
and  when  the  atmosphere  in  the  vessel  supported  only 
one-fourth  of  an  inch  of  mercury  in  the  barometrical 
gauge,  the  sparks  passed  through  a  space  of  nearly 
half  an  inch;  and,  by  withdrawing  the  points  from  each 
other,  the  discharge  was  made  through  six  or  seven 
inches,  producing  a  most  brilliant  coruscation  of  purple 
light;  the  charcoal  became  intensely  ignited,  and 
some  platina  wire  attached  to  it  fused  with  brilliant 
scintillations  and  fell  in  large  globules  upon  the  plate 
of  the  pump.  All  the  phenomena  of  chemical  decom- 
position were  produced  with  intense  rapidity  by  this 
combination." 

It  will  be  seen  from  this  that  as  far  as  the  actual 
lighting-part  of  Davy's  apparatus  was  concerned,  it  was 
completely  successful.  But  the  source  of  the  current 
— the  most  essential  part  of  the  apparatus — was  such 
that  even  the  wealthy  could  hardly  afford  to  indulge  in 
it  as  a  luxury.  The  initial  cost  of  two  thousand  cells  was 
only  a  small  item  of  expense  compared  with  the  cost  of 
maintaining  them  in  working  order,  and  paying  skilled 
operators  to  care  for  them.  So  that  for  the  moment  no 
practical  results  came  from  this  demonstration,  con- 
clusive though  it  was,  and  the  introduction  of  a  com- 

[221] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

mercial  electric  light  was  of  necessity  deferred  until  a 
cheaper  method  of  generating  electricity  should  be  dis- 
covered. 

This  discovery  was  not  made  for  another  generation, 
but  then,  as  seems  entirely  fitting,  it  was  made  by  Davy's 
successor  and  former  assistant  at  the  Royal  Institution, 
Sir  Michael  Faraday.  His  discovery  of  electromagnetic 
induction  in  1831  for  the  first  time  made  possible  the 
electric  dynamo,  although  still  another  generation  passed 
before  this  invention  took  practical  form.  In  the  mean- 
time, however,  the  magneto-electric  machine  of  Nollet 
was  used  for  generating  an  electric  current  for  illumina- 
ting purposes  as  early  as  1863;  and  when  finally  the 
dynamo-electric  machine  was  produced  by  Gramme  in 
1870,  engineers  and  inventors  had  at  their  disposal 
everything  necessary  for  producing  a  practical  electric 
illuminant. 

It  must  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  inventors  stood 
by  patiently  with  folded  hands  waiting  for  the  coming 
of  a  machine  that  would  furnish  them  with  an  adequate 
current  without  attempting  to  produce  electric  lamps. 
On  the  contrary,  they  were  constantly  wrestling  with  the 
problem,  in  some  instances  being  fairly  successful,  even 
before  the  invention  of  the  magneto-electric  machine. 
Great  advances  had  been  made  in  batteries  and  cell 
construction  over  the  primitive  cells  of  the  time  of  Davy, 
and  for  exhibition  purposes,  and  even  for  lighting  fac- 
tories and  large  buildings,  fairly  good  electric  lights  had 
been  used  before  1863. 

The  first  practical  application  of  electric  lighting 
seems  to  have  been  made  in  France  in  1849.  During 

[222] 


THE  BANISHMENT  OF  NIGHT 

the  production  of  the  opera  "The  Prophet"  the  sun  was 
to  appear,  and  for  this  purpose  an  electric  arc  light  was 
used.  The  success  of  this  effort — an  artificial  sun  being 
produced  that  seemed  almost  as  dazzling  to  the  as- 
tonished audience  as  Old  Sol  himself — stimulated 
further  efforts  in  the  same  direction.  The  previous  year 
W.  E.  Staite  in  England  made  experiments  along  similar 
lines  in  the  large  hall  of  the  hotel  of  Sunderland.  He 
generated  a  light  "resembling  the  sun,  or  the  light  of 
day,  and  making  candles  appear  as  obscure  as  they  do 
by  daylight,"  according  to  the  Times  of  the  following 
morning.  The  electric  light  was  therefore  proved  to  be  a 
practical  illuminator,  although  it  was  not  until  the  intro- 
duction of  the  Gramme  dynamo-electric  machine  that  its 
great  economic  utility  was  demonstrated. 

THE   JABLOCHKOFF   CANDLE 

In  Sir  Humphry  Davy's  experiments  with  his  arc 
light  he  was  led  to  believe  that  the  light  between  the 
two  points  of  carbon  would  be  produced  even  in  an 
absolute  vacuum,  if  it  were  possible  to  create  one. 
Several  scientists  at  the  time  disputed  this  conten- 
tion, and  M.  Masson,  Professor  of  Physics  in  the  Ecole 
Centrale  des  Arts  et  Manufactures  in  Paris  was  par- 
ticularly active  in  combatting  the  idea,  maintaining  that 
the  arc  had  the  same  cause  as  the  electric  spark — the 
transport  by  electricity  of  the  incandescent  particles  of 
the  electrodes  through  the  atmosphere.  It  was  certain, 
at  any  rate,  that  no  light  was  produced  when  the  op- 
posing carbons  were  brought  into  contact  with  each 

[223] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

other,  or  were,  on  the  other  hand,  separated  too  widely; 
and  since  there  was  a  constant  wearing  away  and 
shortening  of  the  points,  and  thus  a  constantly  increas- 
ing space  between  them,  the  great  difficulty  in  making 
a  practical  lamp  lay  in  regulating  this  distance  auto- 
matically. It  was  finally  accomplished,  however,  by 
the  invention  of  a  Russian  officer,  M.  Jablochkoff,  in 
1876.  The  "  Jablochkoff  candle,  "as  his  lamp  was  called, 
marked  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  electric  lighting. 
One  great  merit  of  this  invention  was  its  simplicity,  and 
while  it  has  long  since  gone  out  of  use,  having  been 
superseded  by  still  simpler  and  better  devices,  it  must 
always  be  recalled  as  an  important  stepping-stone  in  the 
progress  of  artificial  illumination. 

The  name  "candle"  for  Jablochkoff's  lamp  was  sug- 
gested by  the  fact  that  the  two  carbons  were  placed  side 
by  side,  instead  of  point  to  point,  the  light  at  the  top 
thus  suggesting  a  candle.  Between  these  two  carbons, 
and  extending  their  whole  length  except  at  the  very  tips, 
was  an  insulating  material  that  the  arc  could  not  pierce, 
but  which  burned  away  at  a  rate  commensurate  with 
the  shortening  of  the  carbons.  In  this  manner  the  points 
were  kept  constantly  at  the  proper  distance  without 
regulating-machinery  of  any  kind.  This  ingenious  ap- 
paratus had  the  additional  advantage  that  it  could  be 
placed  on  any  kind  of  a  bracket  or  chandelier  that  was 
properly  wired,  thus  dispensing  with  the  cumbersome 
frames  and  machines  of  the  point-to-point  carbon 
arc  lights  then  being  introduced. 

One  difficulty  at  first  encountered  in  using  the  Jab- 
lochkoff candle  was  the  starting  of  the  voltaic  arc.  In 

[224] 


THE   BANISHMENT   OF   NIGHT 

doing  this  it  was  necessary  that  contact  be  made  be- 
tween two  carbon  points,  whether  they  lie  parallel  or 
point  to  point,  and  the  necessary  slight  separation  for 
producing  the  light  effected  later.  To  accomplish  this 
Jablochkoff  joined  the  tips  of  the  carbons  of  his  candle 
with  a  thin  strip  of  carbon,  which  quickly  burned  away 
when  the  current  was  turned  on,  leaving  the  necessary 
space  between  the  points  for  the  arc. 

There  was  one  difficulty  with  the  "candle"  that 
seemed  insurmountable  for  a  time — the  wasting  of  the 
two  carbons  was  unequal,  as  in  any  arc  light,  the  points 
thus  gradually  drawing  apart  until  the  passage  of  the 
current  was  no  longer  possible.  To  overcome  this  the 
rapidly  wasting  positive  carbon  was  made  double  the 
thickness  of  its  mate;  but  while  this  answered  fairly 
well  the  thinner  negative  carbon  gradually  became 
heated  by  the  increased  resistance,  and  burned  up  too 
rapidly.  The  difficulty  was  finally  overcome  by  the 
simple  expedient  of  alternating  the  flow  of  the  current, 
so  that  each  carbon  was  alternately  a  positive  and  a 
negative  pole.  As  the  magneto-electric  machines  then  in 
use  produced  alternating  currents  it  was  only  necessary 
to  use  such  machines  for  generating  the  current  to 
produce  an  equal  destruction  of  both  carbons. 

The  simplicity  and  excellence  of  the  light  of  these 
" candles"  brought  them  at  once  into  general  popularity, 
not  only  in  the  large  cities  of  Europe,  but  in  many  out- 
of-the-way  places.  Greece,  Portugal,  and  other  obscure 
European  countries  adopted  them,  and  even  Brazil, 
La  Plata,  and  Mexico  installed  many  plants.  But 
stranger  still,  they  were  soon  used  for  illuminating  the 

VOL.  VI. 15  [225] 


THE   CONQUEST   OF   NATURE 

palaces  of  the  Shah  of  Persia  and  the  King  of  Cambodia, 
and  a  little  later  were  introduced  into  the  residence  of 
the  savage  King  of  Burma.  In  short,  their  use  became 
universal  almost  immediately. 

THE   IMPROVED   ARC   LIGHT 

About  the  time  that  Jablochkoff  s  candles  were 
making  such  a  sensation  in  Europe,  Charles  F.  Brush,  of 
Cleveland,  Ohio,  invented  an  arc  light  in  which  the 
carbons  were  set  point  to  point,  the  distance  being 
maintained  and  the  necessary  feed  produced  auto- 
matically in  much  the  same  manner  as  in  the  lamps 
used  at  present.  Other  inventions  soon  followed,  some 
of  the  lamps  being  regulated  by  clockwork,  some  by 
electricity  and  magnetism. 

The  advantage  of  this  type  of  arc  lamp  over  the  candle 
type — an  advantage  that  led  to  its  general  adoption- 
was  largely  that  of  efficiency,  a  far  greater  amount  of 
light  being  obtainable  from  the  same  expenditure  of 
power  by  the  point-to-point  type  of  lamp. 

In  this  lamp  it  is  necessary  that  the  points  of  carbon 
shall  come  in  contact  when  the  current  is  off,  but  be 
drawn  apart  a  moment  after  the  current  is  turned  on, 
and  remain  at  this  fixed  distance.  To  accomplish  this, 
the  lower  carbon  is  usually  made  stationary,  the  feeding 
being  regulated  by  the  position  of  the  upper  carbon. 
In  the  usual  type  of  modern  lamp  the  passage  of  the 
current  causes  the  points  to  separate  the  required  dis- 
tance through  the  action  of  an  electromagnet  the  coils 
of  which  are  traversed  by  the  current.  A  clutch  holds 

[226] 


THE   BANISHMENT   OF   NIGHT 

the  carbon  in  place,  the  position  of  this  being  also  deter- 
mined by  an  electromagnet.  The  action  is  regulated  by 
the  difference  in  the  resistance  to  the  passage  of  the  current 
caused  by  the  increase  in  the  separation  of  the  pomts. 

In  the  older  type  of  arc  lamp  it  was  necessary  to 
"trim"  the  lights  by  replacing  the  carbons  every  day; 
but  recently  lamps  have  been  perfected  in  which  the 
carbons  last  from  one  hundred  to  one  hundred  and 
twenty  hours.  In  these  the  arc  is  enclosed  in  a  glass 
globe  which  is  made  as  nearly  air-tight  as  possible  with 
the  necessary  feed  devices.  This  closed  chamber  is 
fitted  with  a  valve  opening  outward,  which  allows  the 
air  to  be  forced  out  by  the  heat  of  the  lamp,  but  does  not 
admit  a  return  current.  In  this  manner  a  rarefied 
chamber  is  produced  in  which  the  carbons  are  oxidized 
very  slowly;  yet  there  is  no  diminution  in  the  brilliancy 
of  the  light. 

Early  in  the  history  of  electric  lighting  it  became  ap- 
parent that  the  proper  construction  of  the  carbon  elec- 
trodes was  a  highly  important  item  in  the  manufacture 
of  a  lighting  apparatus.  The  value  of  carbons  depends 
largely  upon  their  purity  and  freedom  from  ash  in  burn- 
ing, and  it  required  a  countless  number  of  experiments 
to  develop  the  highly  efficient  carbons  now  in  general 
use.  Davy  made  use  of  pieces  of  wood  charcoal  in  his 
experiments,  but  these  were  too  fragile  to  be  of  prac- 
tical value,  even  if  their  other  qualities  had  been  ideal. 
Later  experimenters  tried  various  compounds,  and  in 
1876  Carre  in  France  produced  excellent  carbons  made 
of  coke,  lampblack,  and  syrup.  From  these  were 
developed  the  present  carbons,  usually  made  by  mixing 

[227] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

some  finely  divided  form  of  carbon,  such  as  soot  or 
lampblack  made  from  burning  paraffin  or  tar,  with  gum 
or  syrup  to  form  a  paste.  Rods  of  proper  size  and  shape 
are  made  by  forcing  this  paste  through  dies  by  hydraulic 
pressure,  subsequently  baking  them  at  a  high  tempera- 
ture. Sometimes  they  are  given  a  coating  of  copper,  a 
thin  layer  of  the  metal  being  deposited  upon  them  by 
electrolysis. 

EDISON  AND  THE  INCANDESCENT  LAMP 

The  familiar  incandescent  electric-light  bulb  seems 
such  a  simple  apparatus  to-day,  being  nothing  appar- 
ently but  a  small  wire  enclosed  in  an  ordinary  glass 
bulb,  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  realize  what  an 
enormous  amount  of  money,  energy,  and  that  particular 
quality  of  mentality  which  we  call  " genius"  has  been 
required  to  produce  it.  First  and  foremost  among  the 
names  of  the  men  of  genius  who  finally  evolved  this 
lamp  is  that  of  Thomas  A.  Edison;  and  only  second  to 
this  foremost  name  are  those  of  Swan,  Lane-Fox,  and 
Hiram  Maxim.  But  Edison's  name  must  stand  pre- 
eminent ;  and  there  are  probably  very  few,  even  among 
Europeans,  who  would  attempt  or  wish  to  deny  him 
the  enviable  place  as  the  actual  perfecter  of  the  in- 
candescent-light bulb. 

It  is  said  that  Edison  first  conceived  the  idea  of  an 
incandescent  electric  light  while  on  a  trip  to  the  Rocky 
Mountains  in  company  with  Draper,  in  1878.  Be 
this  as  it  may,  he  certainly  set  to  work  immediately 
after  completing  this  journey,  and  never  relaxed  or 

[228] 


THOMAS  A.  EDISON  AND  THE  DYNAMO  THAT  GENERATED  THE  FIRST  COMMERCIAL  ELECTRIC  LIGHT. 


THE  BANISHMENT   OF  NIGHT 

ceased  his  efforts  until  a  practical  incandescent  lamp 
had  been  produced.  His  idea  was  to  perfect  a  lamp 
that  would  do  everything  that  gas  could  do,  and  more; 
a  lamp  that  would  give  a  clear,  steady  light,  without 
odor,  or  excessive  heat  such  as  was  given  by  the  arc 
lights — in  short,  a  household  lamp. 

Early  in  his  experiments  he  abandoned  the  voltaic 
arc,  deciding  that  a  successful  lamp  must  be  one  in 
which  incandescence  is  produced  by  a  strong  current 
in  a  conductor,  the  heat  caused  by  the  resistance  to  the 
current  producing  the  glow  and  light.  But  when  search 
was  made  for  a  suitable  substance  possessing  the  neces- 
sary properties  to  be  the  incandescent  material,  the  in- 
ventor was  confronted  by  a  vast  array  of  difficulties. 
It  was  of  course  essential  that  the  substance  must  re- 
main incandescent  without  burning,  and  at  the  same 
time  offer  a  resistance  to  the  passage  of  the  current 
precisely  such  as  would  bring  about  the  heating  that 
produced  incandescence.  It  should  be  infusible  even 
under  this  high  degree  of  heat,  or  otherwise  it  would 
soon  disappear;  and  it  must  not  be  readily  oxidizable, 
or  it  would  be  destroyed  as  by  ordinary  combustion. 
It  should  also  be  of  material  reducible  to  a  filament 
as  fine  as  hair,  but  capable  of  preserving  a  rigid  form. 
These,  among  others,  were  the  qualities  to  be  con- 
sidered in  selecting  this  apparently  simple  filament  for 
the  incandescent  lamp.  It  was  not  a  task  for  the  tyro, 
therefore,  that  Edison  undertook  when  he  began  his 
experiments  for  producing  an  "  ideal  lamp." 

The  substance  in  nature  that  seemed  to  possess  most 
of  the  necessary  qualities  just  enumerated  was  the  metal 

[229] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF   NATURE 

platinum,  and  Edison  began  at  once  experimenting 
with  this.  He  made  a  small  spiral  of  very  fine  platinum 
wire,  which  he  enclosed  in  a  glass  globe  about  the  size 
of  an  ordinary  baseball.  The  two  ends  of  the  wires 
connected  with  outside  conducting  wires,  which  were 
sealed  into  the  base  of  the  bulb.  The  air  in  the  bulb 
had  to  be  exhausted  and  a  vacuum  maintained  to 
diminish  the  loss  of  heat  and  of  electricity  and  to  pre- 
vent the  oxidation  of  the  platinum.  But  when  the  cur- 
rent was  passed  through  the  spiral  wire  in  this  vacuum 
a  peculiar  change  took  place  in  the  platinum  itself. 
The  gases  retained  in  the  pores  of  the  metal  at  once 
escaped,  and  the  wire  took  on  such  peculiar  physical 
properties  that  it  was  supposed  for  a  time  by  some 
physicists  that  a  new  metal  had  been  produced.  The 
metal  acquired  a  very  high  degree  of  elasticity  and  be- 
came susceptible  of  a  high  polish  like  silver,  at  the  same 
time  becoming  almost  as  hard  as  steel.  It  also  ac- 
quired a  greater  calorific  capacity  so  that  it  could  be 
made  much  more  luminous  without  fusing.  To  dimin- 
ish the  loss  of  heat  the  wire  was  coated  with  some  metal- 
lic oxide,  and  the  slope  of  the  spiral  also  aided  in  this 
as  each  turn  of  the  spiral  radiated  heat  upon  its  neigh- 
bor, thus  utilizing  a  certain  amount  that  would  other- 
wise have  been  lost.  But  despite  all  this,  Edison  found, 
after  tedious  experimenting,  that  platinum  did  not  fulfil 
the  requirements  of  a  practical  filament  for  his  lamp; 
it  either  melted  or  disintegrated  in  a  short  time  and  be- 
came useless;  and  the  other  experimenters  had  met  with 
the  same  obstacles  to  its  use,  and  were  forced  to  the 
same  conclusion. 

[230] 


THE  BANISHMENT  OF  NIGHT 

Some  other  substance  must  be  found.  The  use  of 
carbon  for  arc  lights  and  Edison's  own  experiments 
with  carbon  in  his  work  on  the  telephone  naturally 
suggested  this  substance  as  a  possibility.  It  is  said  that 
this  idea  was  brought  forcibly  to  the  inventor's  attention 
by  noticing  the  delicate  spiral  of  vegetable  carbon  left 
in  his  hand  after  using  a  twisted  bit  of  paper,  one  day,  for 
lighting  a  cigar.  This  spiral  of  carbon  was,  of  course,  too 
fragile  to  be  of  use  in  its  ordinary  form.  But  it  occurred 
to  Edison  that  if  a  means  of  consolidating  it  could  be 
found,  there  was  reason  to  hope  that  it  would  answer 
the  purpose.  Experiments  were  begun  at  once,  there- 
fore, not  only  with  processes  of  consolidation  but  also 
with  various  kinds  of  paper,  and  neither  effort  nor 
expense  was  spared  to  test  every  known  variety  of  paper. 
Moreover,  many  new  varieties  of  paper  were  manufac- 
tured at  great  expense  from  substances  having  peculiar 
fibres.  One  of  these,  made  from  a  delicate  cotton  grown 
on  some  little  islands  off  South  Carolina,  gave  a  carbon 
free  from  ash,  and  seemed  to  promise  good  results; 
but  later  it  was  found  that  the  current  of  electricity  did 
not  circulate  through  this  substance  with  sufficient  regu- 
larity to  get  protracted  and  uniform  effects.  Neverthe- 
less, since  many  things  pointed  to  this  fibre  carbon 
as  the  ideal  substance,  Edison  set  about  determining 
the  cause  of  the  irregularity  in  the  circulation  of  the 
current  in  the  filament,  and  a  number  of  other  experi- 
menters soon  became  interested  in  the  problem. 

It  was  soon  determined  that  the  arrangement  of  the 
fibres  themselves  were  directly  responsible  for  the  dif- 
ficulty. In  ordinary  paper  the  fibres  are  pressed  to- 


THE   CONQUEST   OF   NATURE 

gather  without  any  special  arrangement,  like  wool  fibres 
in  felting.  In  passing  through  such  a  substance,  there- 
fore, the  current  cannot  travel  along  a  continuous  fibre, 
but  must  jump  from  fibre  to  fibre,  "like  a  man  crossing 
a  brook  on  stepping-stones."  Each  piece  of  fibre 
constitutes  a  lamp  or  miniature  voltaic  arc,  so  that  the 
current  is  no  longer  a  continuous  one;  and  the  little 
interior  sparks  thus  generated  quickly  destroy  the  fila- 
ment. This  discovery  made  it  apparent  that  such  an 
artificial,  feltlike  substance  as  paper  could  not  be  made 
to  answer  the  purpose,  and  Edison  set  about  searching 
for  some  natural  substance  having  fibres  sufficiently 
long  to  give  the  necessary  homogeneity  for  the  passage 
of  the  current. 

For  this  purpose  specimens  of  all  the  woods  and  fibre- 
substances  of  all  countries  were  examined.  Special 
agents  were  sent  to  India,  China,  Japan,  South  America, 
in  quest  of  peculiar  fibrous  substances.  The  various 
woods  thus  secured  were  despatched  to  the  Edison 
plant  at  Menlo  Park  and  there  carefully  examined  and 
tested.  Without  dwelling  on  the  endless  details  of  this 
tedious  task,  it  may  be  said  at  once  that  only  three  sub- 
stances out  of  all  the  mass  withstood  the  tests  reasonably 
well.  Of  these,  a  species  of  Japanese  bamboo  was 
found  to  answer  the  purpose  best.  Thus  the  practical 
incandescent  lamp,  which  had  cost  so  much  time,  in- 
genuity, and  money,  came  into  existence,  fulfilling  the 
expectation  of  the  most  sanguine  dream  of  its  inventor. 

In  using  these  bamboo  carbon  filaments  the  original 
spiral  form  of  filament  was  abandoned,  the  now  familiar 
elongated  horseshoe  being  adopted,  as  the  carbon 

[232] 


THE   BANISHMENT  OF  NIGHT 

could  not  be  bent  into  the  tortuous  shapes  possible  with 
platinum.  Later  various  modifications  in  the  shape 
of  the  filament  were  made,  usually  as  adaptations  to 
changes  in  the  shape  of  the  bulbs. 

At  the  same  time  that  Edison  was  succeeding  with 
his  bamboo  carbon  filaments,  J.  W.  Swan  had  been  al- 
most as  successful  with  a  filament  formed  by  treating 
cotton  thread  with  sulphuric  acid,  thus  producing  a 
"  parchmentized  thread,"  which  was  afterwards  car- 
bonized. A  modification  of  this  process  eventually 
supplanted  the  Edison  bamboo  filament;  and  the  fila- 
ment now  in  common  use — the  successor  of  the  "  parch- 
mentized thread  " — is  made  of  a  form  of  soluble  cellulose 
prepared  by  dissolving  purified  cotton  wool  in  a  solution 
of  zinc  chloride,  and  then  pressing  the  material  out  into 
long  threads  by  pressing  it  through  a  die. 

The  long  thread  so  obtained  is  a  semi-transparent 
substance,  resembling  catgut,  which  when  carbonized 
at  a  high  temperature  forms  a  very  elastic  form  of  carbon 
filament.  To  prepare  the  filament  the  cellulose  threads 
are  cut  into  the  proper  lengths,  bent  into  horseshoe 
shape,  double  loops,  or  any  desired  form,  and  then  folded 
round  carbon  formers  and  immersed  in  plumbago 
crucibles.  On  heating  these  crucibles  to  a  high  tempera- 
ture the  organic  matter  of  the  filaments  is  destroyed, 
the  carbon  filaments  remaining.  These  filaments  are 
then  ready  for  attachment  to  the  platinum  leading-in 
wires,  which  is  accomplished  either  by  means  of  a  car- 
bon cement  or  by  a  carbon-depositing  process.  They 
are  then  placed  in  the  glass  bulbs  and  the  wires  her- 
metically sealed,  after  which  the  bulbs  are  exhausted, 

[233] 


THE   CONQUEST   OF   NATURE 

tested,  fitted  with  the  familiar  brass  collars,  and  are 
ready  for  use. 

The  combined  discoveries  of  all  experimenters  had 
made  it  evident  that  certain  conditions  were  necessary 
to  success,  regardless  of  the  structure  of  the  carbon 
filament.  It  was  essential  that  the  vessel  containing 
the  filament  should  be  entirely  of  glass;  that  the  current 
should  be  conveyed  in  and  out  this  by  means  of  platinum 
wires  hermetically  sealed  through  the  glass;  and  that 
the  glass  globe  must  be  as  thoroughly  exhausted  as 
possible.  This  last  requirement  proved  a  difficult 
one  for  a  time,  but  by  improved  methods  it  finally  be- 
came possible  to  produce  almost  a  perfect  vacuum  in 
the  bulbs,  with  a  corresponding  increase  in  the  efficiency 
of  the  lamps. 

THE  TUNGSTEN  LAMP 

For  twenty  years  the  carbon-filament  lamp  stood 
without  a  rival.  But  meanwhile  the  science  of  chem- 
istry was  making  rapid  strides  and  putting  at  the 
disposal  of  practical  inventors  many  substances 
hitherto  unknown,  or  not  available  in  commercial 
quantities.  Among  these  were  three  metals,  osmium, 
tantalum,  and  tungsten,  and  these  metals  soon  menaced 
the  apparently  secure  position  of  the  highly  satisfac- 
tory, although  expensive,  Edison  lamp. 

It  will  be  recalled  that  the  early  experimenters  had 
used  two  metals,  platinum  and  iridium,  for  lamp 
filaments;  and  that  these  two,  although  unsatisfac- 
tory, were  the  only  ones  that  had  given  even  a  promise 

[234] 


THE   BANISHMENT  OF   NIGHT 

of  success.  But  in  1898  Dr.  Auer  von  Welsbach  took 
out  patents,  and  in  1903  produced  a  lamp  using  an 
osmium  filament.  Its  advent  marked  the  beginning 
of  the  return  to  metal-filament  lamps,  although  the 
lamp  itself  did  not  prove  to  be  very  satisfactory  and 
was  quickly  displaced  by  a  lamp  invented  by  Messrs. 
Siemens  and  Halske,  having  a  tantalum  filament. 
On  account  of  its  ease  to  manufacture,  its  brilliant 
light,  and  relatively  low  consumption  of  power,  this 
lamp  gained  great  popularity  at  once,  and  for  a  single 
year  was  practically  without  a  rival.  Then,  in  1904, 
patents  were  taken  out  by  Just  and  Hanaman,  Kuzel, 
and  Welsbach,  for  lamps  using  filaments  of  tungsten, 
and  the  superiority  of  these  lamps  over  the  tantalum 
lamps  gave  them  an  immediate  popularity  never  attained 
by  either  of  the  other  metal-filament  lamps. 

Needless  to  say  there  is  good  ground  for  this  pop- 
ularity, which  may  be  explained  by  the  simple  state- 
ment that  the  tungsten  lamp  gives  more  light  with 
much  less  consumption  of  power  per  candle  power  than 
any  of  its  predecessors.  Unlike  the  carbon  filament, 
which  projects  in  the  familiar  elongated  horse -shoe 
loop,  or  double  loop,  into  the  exhausted  bulb,  the  tung- 
sten filament  is  wound  on  a  frame,  so  that  several 
filaments  (usually  eight  or  more)  are  used  for  producing 
the  light  in  each  bulb.  The  chief  defect  of  this  lamp 
is  the  fragility  of  the  filament,  which  breaks  easily  when 
subjected  to  mechanical  vibration.  On  the  other  hand, 
tungsten  lamps  can  be  used  in  places  at  a  long  distance 
from  the  central  generating  plant,  where  the  electric 
current  is  too  weak  for  carbon -filament  lamps. 

[235] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 


THE  MERCURY- VAPOR  LIGHT  OF  PETER  COOPER  HEWITT 

"On  an  evening  in  January,  1902,  a  great  crowd 
was  attracted  to  the  entrance  of  the  Engineers'  Club  in 
New  York  city.  Over  the  doorway  a  narrow  glass 
tube  gleamed  with  a  strange  blue-green  light  of  such  in- 
tensity that  print  was  easily  readable  across  the  street, 
and  yet  so  softly  radiant  that  one  could  look  directly 
at  it  without  the  sensation  of  blinding  discomfort  which 
accompanies  nearly  all  brilliant  artificial  lights.  The 
hall  within,  where  Mr.  Hewitt  was  making  the  first 
public  announcement  of  his  great  discovery,  was  also 
illuminated  by  the  wonderful  new  tubes.  The  light 
was  different  from  anything  ever  seen  before,  grateful 
to  the  eyes,  much  like  daylight,  only  giving  the  face  a 
curious,  pale-green,  unearthly  appearance.  The  cause 
of  this  phenomenon  was  soon  evident;  the  tubes  were 
seen  to  give  forth  all  the  rays  except  red, — orange, 
yellow,  green,  blue,  violet, — so  that  under  its  illumination 
the  room  and  the  street  without,  the  faces  of  the  spec- 
tators, the  clothing  of  the  women,  lost  all  their  shades 
of  red ;  indeed,  changing  the  face  of  the  world  to  a  pale 
green-blue. 

"The  extraordinary  appearance  of  this  lamp  and  its 
profound  significance  as  a  scientific  discovery  at  once 
awakened  a  wide  public  interest,  especially  among 
electricians  who  best  understood  its  importance.  Here 
was  an  entirely  new  sort  of  electric  light.  The  familiar 
incandescent  lamp,  though  the  best  of  all  methods  of 
illumination,  is  also  the  most  expensive.  Mr.  Hewitt's 

[236] 


THE  BANISHMENT  OF  NIGHT 

lamp,  though  not  yet  adapted  to  all  the  purposes  served 
by  the  Edison  lamp,  on  account  of  its  peculiar  color, 
produces  eight  times  as  much  light  with  the  same 
amount  of  power.  It  is  also  practically  indestructible, 
there  being  no  filament  to  burn  out;  and  it  requires 
no  special  wiring.  By  means  of  this  invention  electricity, 
instead  of  being  the  most  costly  means  of  illumination 
becomes  the  cheapest — cheaper  even  than  kerosene. 
No  further  explanation  than  this  is  necessary  to  show 
the  enormous  importance  of  this  invention." 

As  just  stated,  the  defect  of  the  Edison  incandescent 
lamp  is  its  cost,  due  to  its  utilizing  only  a  small  fraction 
of  the  power  used  in  producing  the  incandescence,  and, 
of  much  less  importance,  the  relatively  short  life  of 
the  filament  itself.  Only  about  three  per  cent,  of  the 
actual  power  is  utilized  by  the  light,  the  remaining 
ninety-seven  per  cent,  being  absolutely  wasted;  and 
it  was  this  enormous  waste  of  energy  that  first  at- 
tracted the  attention  of  Mr.  Hewitt,  and  led  him  to  direct 
his  energies  to  finding  a  substitute  that  would  be  more 
economical.  A  large  part  of  the  waste  in  the  Edison 
bulb  is  known  to  be  due  to  the  conversion  of  the  energy 
into  useless  heat,  instead  of  light,  as  shown  by  the  heated 
glass.  Mr.  Hewitt  attempted  to  produce  a  light  that 
would  use  up  the  power  in  light  alone — to  produce  a 
cool  light,  in  short. 

Instead  of  directing  his  efforts  to  the  solids,  Mr. 
Hewitt  turned  his  attention  to  gaseous  bodies,  believing 
that  an  incandescent  gas  would  prove  the  more  nearly 
ideal  substance  for  a  cool  light.  The  field  of  the  pas- 
sage of  electricity  through  gases  was  by  no  means  a 

[237] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

virgin  one,  but  was  nevertheless  relatively  unexplored: 
and  Mr.  Hewitt  was,  therefore,  for  the  most  part  obliged 
to  depend  upon  his  own  researches  and  experiments. 
In  these  experiments  hundreds  of  gases  were  examined, 
some  of  them  giving  encouraging  results,  but  most  of 
them  presenting  insurmountable  difficulties.  Finally 
mercury  vapor  was  tried,  with  the  result  that  the  light 
just  referred  to  was  produced. 

The  possibilities  of  mercury- vapor  gas  had  long  been 
vaguely  suspected — suspected,  in  fact,  since  the  early 
days  of  electrical  investigation,  two  centuries  before. 
The  English  philosopher,  Francis  Hauksbee,  as  early 
as  1705  had  shown  that  light  could  be  produced  by 
passing  air  through  mercury  in  an  exhausted  receiver. 
He  had  discovered  that  when  a  blast  of  air  was  driven 
up  against  the  sides  of  the  glass  receiver,  it  appeared 
"  all  round  like  a  body  of  fire,  consisting  of  an  abundance 
of  glowing  globules,"  and  continuing  until  the  receiver 
was  about  half  full  of  air.  Hauksbee  called  this  his 
"mercurial  fountain,"  and  although  he  was  unable  to 
account  for  the  production  of  this  peculiar  light,  which 
he  remarked  "resembled  lightning,"  he  attributed  it 
to  the  action  of  electricity. 

Between  Hauksbee's  "mercurial  fountain"  and 
Hewitt's  mercury-vapor  light,  however,  there  is  a  wide 
gap,  and,  as  it  happened,  this  gap  is  practically  unbridged 
by  intermediate  experiments,  for  Mr.  Hewitt  had 
never  chanced  to  hear  anything  of  Hauksbee's  early 
experiments,  or  of  any  of  the  tentative  ones  of  later 
scientists.  But  this,  on  the  whole,  may  have  been 
rather  advantageous  than  otherwise,  as,  being  ignorant, 

[238] 


THE   BANISHMENT   OF   NIGHT 

he  was  perhaps  in  a  more  receptive  state  of  mind  than 
if  hampered  by  false  or  prejudicial  conceptions.  Be 
this  as  it  may,  he  began  experimenting  with  mercury 
confined  in  a  glass  tube  from  which  the  air  had  been 
exhausted,  the  mercury  being  vaporized  either  by 
heating,  or  by  a  current  of  electricity.  No  results  of  any 
importance  came  of  his  numerous  experiments  for  a 
time,  but  at  last  he  made  the  all-important  discovery 
that  once  the  high  resistance  of  the  cold  mercury  was 
overcome,  a  comparatively  weak  current  would  then 
be  conducted,  producing  a  brilliant  light  from  the  glow 
of  the  mercury  vapor.  Here,  then,  was  the  secret  of  the 
use  of  mercury  vapor  for  lighting — a  powerful  current 
of  electricity  for  a  fraction  of  a  second  passed  through 
the  vapor  to  overcome  the  initial  resistance,  and  then 
the  passage  of  an  ordinary  current  to  produce  the  light. 

In  practice  this  apparent  difficulty  in  overcoming  the 
initial  resistance  with  a  strong  current  is  easily  over- 
come by  the  use  of  a  "  boosting  coil,"  which  supplies  the 
strong  current  for  an  instant,  and  is  then  shut  off  auto- 
matically, the  ordinary  current  continuing  for  producing 
the  light.  The  mechanism  is  hardly  more  complex  than 
that  of  the  ordinary  incandescent  light,  but  the  current  of 
ordinary  strength  produces  an  illumination  about  eight 
times  as  intense  as  the  ordinary  incandescent  bulb  of 
equal  candle-power. 

The  form  of  lamp  used  is  that  of  a  long,  horizontal 
tube  suspended  overhead  in  the  room,  a  brilliant  light 
being  diffused,  which,  lacking  the  red  rays  of  ordinary 
lights,  gives  a  bluish-green  tone  to  objects,  and  a  par- 
ticularly ghastly  and  unpleasant  appearance  to  faces  and 

[239] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

hands,  as  referred  to  a  moment  ago.  In  many  ways 
this  feature  of  the  light  is  really  a  peculiarity  rather  than 
a  defect,  and  for  practical  purposes  in  work  requiring 
continued  eye-strain  the  absence  of  the  red  rays  is 
frequently  advantageous.  In  such  close  work  as 
that  of  pen-drawing,  for  example,  some  artists  find  it  ad- 
vantageous to  use  globes  filled  with  water  tinted  a  faint 
green  color,  placed  between  the  lamps  and  their  paper, 
the  effect  produced  being  somewhat  the  same  as  that 
of  the  mercury- vapor  light.  For  such  work  the  absence 
of  the  red  rays  of  the  Hewitt  light  would  not  be  con- 
sidered a  defect;  and  in  workshops  and  offices  where 
Mr.  Hewitt's  lamps  are  used  the  workmen  have  become 
enthusiastic  over  them. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  fact  that  the  color- values  of 
objects  are  so  completely  changed  makes  this  light 
objectionable  for  ordinary  use ;  so  much  so,  in  fact,  that 
the  inventor  was  led  to  take  up  the  problem  of  intro- 
ducing red  rays  in  some  manner  so  as  to  produce  a  pure 
white  light.  He  has  partly  accomplished  this  by  means 
of  pink  cloth  colored  with  rhodium  thrown  around 
the  glass;  but  this  causes  a  distinct  loss  of  brilliancy. 

The  most  natural  method  of  introducing  the  red 
rays,  it  would  seem,  would  be  to  use  globes  of  red 
glass;  but  a  moment's  reflection  will  show  that  this 
would  not  solve  the  difficulty.  Red  glass  does  not 
change  light  waves,  but  simply  suppresses  all  but  the 
red  rays;  and  since  there  are  no  red  rays  in  the  mercury- 
vapor  light  the  result  of  the  red  globe  would  be  to  sup- 
press all  the  light.  Obviously,  therefore,  this  apparently 
simple  method  does  not  solve  the  difficulty;  but  those 

[240] 


THE   BANISHMENT   OF   NIGHT 

familiar  with  Mr.  Hewitt's  work  will  not  be  surprised 
any  day  to  hear  that  he  has  finally  overcome  all  obstacles, 
and  produced  a  perfectly  white  light.  In  the  meantime 
the  relatively  expensive  arc  light  and  the  incandescent 
bulb  with  its  filament  of  carbon  or  metal  hold  unchal- 
lenged supremacy  in  the  commercial  field. 

VOL.  VI. — 16 


[241] 


XII 

THE  MINERAL  DEPTHS 

AGES  before  the  dawn  of  civilization,  primitive 
man  had  learned  to  extract  certain  ores  and 
metals  from  the  earth  by  subterranean  min- 
ing. Such  nations  as  the  Egyptians,  for  example,  un- 
derstood mining  in  most  of  its  phases,  and  worked 
their  mines  in  practically  the  same  manner  as  all  suc- 
ceeding nations  before  the  time  of  the  introduction 
of  the  steam  engine.  The  early  Britons  were  good 
miners  and  the  products  of  their  mines  were  carried 
to  the  Orient  by  the  Phoenicians  many  centuries  before 
the  Christian  era.  The  Romans  were,  of  course, 
great  miners,  and  remains  of  the  Roman  mines  are 
still  in  existence,  particularly  good  examples  being 
found  in  Spain. 

Even  the  aborigines  of  North  America  possessed 
some  knowledge  of  mining,  as  attested  by  the  ancient 
copper  mines  in  the  Lake  Superior  region,  although 
by  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  America,  and  prob- 
ably many  centuries  before,  the  interloping  races  of 
Indians  who  had  driven  out  or  exterminated  the  Lake 
Superior  copper  mines  had  forgotten  the  art  of  mining, 
if  indeed  they  had  ever  learned  it.  But  the  fact  that 
their  predecessors  had  worked  the  copper  mines  is 
shown  by  the  number  of  stone  mining  implements 
found  in  the  ancient  excavations  about  Lake  Superior, 

[242] 


THE  MINERAL  DEPTHS 

these  implements  being  found  literally  by  cart  loads  in 
some  places. 

The  great  progress  in  mining  methods,  however, 
as  in  the  case  of  most  other  mechanical  arts,  began 
with  the  introduction  of  steam  as  a  means  of  utiliz- 
ing energy;  and  another  revolution  is  in  rapid  progress 
owing  to  the  perfection  of  electrical  apparatus  for 
furnishing  power,  heat,  and  light.  Methods  of  mining 
a  hundred  years  ago  were  undoubtedly  somewhat  in 
advance  of  the  methods  used  by  the  ancients;  but  the 
gap  was  not  a  wide  one,  and  the  progress  made  by 
decades  after  the  introduction  of  steam  has  been 
infinitely  greater  than  the  progress  made  by  centuries 
previous  to  that  time. 

This  progress,  of  course,  applies  to  all  kinds  of  mines 
and  all  phases  of  mining;  but  steam  and  electricity 
are  not  alone  responsible  for  the  great  nineteenth- 
century  progress.  Geology,  an  unknown  science  a 
century  ago,  has  played  a  most  active  and  important 
part;  and  chemistry,  whose  birth  as  a  science  dates 
from  the  opening  years  of  the  nineteenth  century,  is 
responsible  for  many  of  the  great  advances. 

Obviously  a  very  important  feature  of  any  mine 
must  be  its  location,  and  the  determination  of  this 
must  always  constitute  the  principal  hazard  in  prac- 
tical mining.  Prospecting,  or  exploring  for  suitable 
mining  sites,  has  been  an  important  occupation  for 
many  years,  and  has  in  fact  become  a  scientific  one 
recently.  Formerly  mines  were  frequently  stumbled 
upon  by  accident,  but  such  accidental  discoveries  are 
becoming  less  and  less  frequent.  The  prospector 

[243] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

now  draws  largely  upon  the  knowledge  of  the  scien- 
tist to  aid  him  in  his  search.  Geology,  for  example, 
assists  him  in  determining  the  region  in  which  his 
mines  may  be  found,  if  it  cannot  actually  point  out  the 
location  for  sinking  his  shaft;  and  at  least  a  rough 
knowledge  of  botany  and  chemistry  is  an  invaluable 
aid  to  him.  It  is  obvious  that  it  would  be  useless  to 
prospect  for  coal  in  a  region  where  no  strata  of  rocks 
formed  during  the  Carboniferous  or  coal-forming  age 
are  to  be  found  within  a  workable  distance  below  the 
surface  of  the  earth.  The  prospector  must,  therefore, 
direct  his  efforts  within  "geological  confines"  if  he 
would  hope  to  be  successful,  and  in  this  he  is  now 
greatly  aided  by  the  geological  surveys  which  have 
been  made  of  almost  every  region  in  the  United  States 
and  Europe. 

An  example  of  what  science  has  done  in  this  direc- 
tion was  shown  a  few  years  ago  in  a  western  American 
town  during  one  of  the  "oil  booms"  that  excited  so 
many  communities  at  that  time.  In  the  neighborhood 
of  this  town  evidences  of  oil  had  been  found  from  time 
to  time — some  of  them  under  peculiar  and  suspicious 
circumstances,  to  be  sure — and  the  members  of  the 
community  were  in  an  intense  state  of  excitement  over 
the  possibility  of  oil  being  found  on  their  lands. 
Prices  of  land  jumped  to  fabulous  figures,  and  the 
few  land-owners  that  could  be  induced  to  part  with 
their  farms  became  opulent  by  the  transactions.  An 
"oil  expert"  appeared  upon  the  scene  about  this  time 
—just  "happening  to  drop  in" — who  declared,  after 
an  examination,  that  the  entire  region  abounded  in 

[244] 


THE  MINERAL  DEPTHS 

oil.  He  backed  up  his  assertion  by  offering  to  stake 
his  experience  against  the  capital  of  a  company  which 
was  formed  at  his  suggestion.  Before  any  wells  were 
actually  started,  however,  a  prudent  member  of  the 
company  consulted  the  State  geologist  on  the  subject, 
receiving  the  assurance  that  no  oil  would  be  found 
in  the  neighborhood.  Strangely  enough  the  word  of 
the  man  of  science  triumphed  over  that  of  the  "oil 
expert/'  and  although  some  tentative  borings  were 
made  on  a  minor  scale,  no  great  amount  of  money 
was  sunk.  It  developed  afterwards  that  the  evidences 
of  oil  found  from  time  to  time  had  been  the  secret 
vw,rk  of  the  "expert. :? 

In  general,  prospecting  for  oil  differs  pretty  radically 
from  prospecting  for  most  other  minerals.  A  very  com- 
mon way  of  locating  an  ore-mine  is  by  the  nature  of 
the  out-crop, — that  is,  the  broken  edges  of  strata  of 
rocks  protruding  from  hillsides,  or  tilted  at  an  angle 
on  level  areas.  If  the  ore-bearing  vein  is  harder  than 
the  surrounding  strata  it  will  be  found  as  a  jutting 
edge,  protruding  beyond  the  surface  of  the  other  lay- 
ers of  rocks  which,  being  softer,  are  more  easily  worn 
away.  On  the  other  hand,  if  this  stratum  is  soft  or 
decomposable  it  will  show  as  a  depression,  or  "sag" 
as  it  is  called.  Of  course  such  protrusions  and  de- 
pressions may  only  be  seen  and  examined  where  the 
rocks  themselves  are  exposed;  vegetation,  drift,  and 
snow  preventing  such  observations.  But  the  vegeta- 
tion may  in  itself  serve  as  a  guide  to  the  experienced 
prospector  in  determining  the  location  of  a  mine, 
peculiar  mineral  conditions  being  conducive  to  the 

[245] 


THE   CONQUEST   OF   NATURE 

growth  of  certain  forms  of  vegetation,  or  to  the  arrange- 
ment of  such  growth.  Alterations  in  the  color  of  the 
rocks  on  a  hillside  are  also  important  guides,  as  such 
discolorations  frequently  indicate  that  oxidizable  min- 
erals are  located  above. 

In  hilly  or  mountainous  regions,  where  the  under- 
lying rocks  are  covered  with  earth,  portions  of  these 
surfaces  are  sometimes  uncovered  by  the  method 
known  as  "  booming."  In  using  this  method  the 
prospector  selects  a  convenient  depression  near  the 
top  of  a  hill  and  builds  a  temporary  dam  across 
the  point  corresponding  to  the  lowest  outlet.  When 
snow  and  rain  have  turned  the  basin  so  formed  into 
a  lake,  the  dam  is  burst  and  the  water  rushing  down 
the  hillside  cuts  away  the  overlying  dirt,  exposing 
the  rocks  beneath.  This  method  is  effective  and  in- 
expensive. 

The  beds  of  streams,  particularly  those  in  hilly  and 
mountainous  regions,  are  fertile  fields  for  prospecting, 
particularly  for  precious  metals.  Stones  and  pebbles 
found  in  the  bed  are  likely  to  reveal  the  ore-founda- 
tions along  the  course  of  the  stream,  and  the  shape 
of  these  pebbles  helps  in  determining  the  approximate 
location  of  such  foundations.  An  ore-bearing  pebble, 
well  worn  and  rounded,  has  probably  traveled  some 
little  distance  from  its  original  source,  being  rounded 
and  worn  in  its  passage  down  the  stream.  On  the 
other  hand,  if  it  is  still  angular  it  has  come  a  much 
shorter  distance,  and  the  prospector  will  be  guided 
accordingly  in  his  search  for  the  ore-vein. 

But  prospecting  is  not  limited  to  these  simple  sur- 

[246] 


THE  MINERAL  DEPTHS 

face  methods.  In  enterprises  undertaken  on  a  large 
scale,  borings  are  frequently  made  in  regions  where 
there  are  perhaps  no  specific  surface  indications.  In 
such  regions  a  shaft  may  be  sunk  or  a  tunnel  may  be 
dug,  and  the  condition  of  the  underlying  strata  thus 
definitely  determined.  This  last  is,  of  course,  a  most 
expensive  method,  the  simpler  and  more  usual  way 
being  that  of  making  borings  to  certain  depths.  The 
difficulty  with  such  borings  is  that  rich  veins  may  be 
passed  by  the  borer  without  detection ;  or,  on  the  other 
hand,  a  small  vein  happening  to  lie  in  the  same  plane 
as  the  drill  may  give  a  wrong  impression  as  to  the  ex- 
tent of  the  vein. 

One  of  the  most  satisfactory  ways  of  making  bor- 
ings is  by  means  of  the  diamond  drill.  This  drill 
is  made  in  the  form  of  a  long  metal  tube,  the  lower 
edge  of  which  is  made  into  a  cutting  implement  by 
black  diamonds  fixed  in  the  edge  of  the  metal.  By 
rotating  this  tube  a  ring  is  cut  through  the  layers  of 
rock,  the  solid  cylinder  or  core  of  rock  remaining  in 
the  hollow  centre  of  the  drill.  This  can  be  removed 
from  time  to  time,  the  nature  and  thickness  of  the 
geological  formation  through  which  the  drill  is  passing 
being  thus  definitely  determined. 

CONDITIONS   TO   BE   CONSIDERED   IN   MINING 

Three  great  problems  always  confront  the  mine 
operator — light,  power,  and  ventilation.  Of  these 
ventilation  is  the  most  important  from  the  workman's 
standpoint,  although  the  problem  of  light  is  scarcely 

[247] 


THE   CONQUEST   OF   NATURE 

less  so.  Obviously  a  cavity  of  the  earth  where  hundreds 
of  men  are  constantly  consuming  the  atmosphere  and 
vitiating  it,  and  where  thousands  of  lights  are  burning, 
would  become  like  the  black  hole  of  Calcutta  in  a  few 
minutes  if  some  means  were  not  adopted  to  relieve 
this  condition.  But  besides  this  vitiation  of  the  at- 
mosphere caused  by  the  respiration  of  the  men  and  the 
burning  of  lamps  there  are  likely  to  be  accumulations 
of  poisonous  gases  in  mines,  that  are  even  more  dan- 
gerous. Of  the  two  classes  of  dangerous  gases — 
those  that  asphyxiate  and  those  that  explode  or  burn- 
it  may  be  said  in  a  general  way  that  the  suffocating 
or  poisonous  gases,  such  as  carbonic  acid,  which  is 
known  as  black  damp,  or  choke  damp,  are  more  likely 
to  occur  in  ore  mines,  while  the  explosive  gases  are 
found  more  frequently  in  coal  mines. 

Choke  damp,  which  is  a  gas  considerably  heavier 
than  the  atmosphere,  is  usually  found  near  the  bottom 
of  mines,  running  along  declines  and  falling  into  holes 
in  much  the  same  manner  as  a  liquid.  It  kills  by  suffo- 
cation, and,  as  it  will  not  support  combustion,  it  may 
be  detected  by  lowering  a  lighted  candle  into  a  sus- 
pected cavity,  the  light  being  extinguished  at  once  if 
the  gas  is  present.  To  rid  the  cavity  of  it,  forced 
ventilation  is  used  where  possible,  the  gas  being  scat- 
tered by  draughts  of  fresh  air.  If  this  is  impracticable, 
and  the  cavity  small,  the  choke  damp  may  be  dipped 
out  with  buckets. 

But  the  problem  of  the  mining  engineer  is  not  so 
much  to  rid  cavities  of  gas  as  to  prevent  its  accumula- 
tion. In  modern  mining,  with  proper  ventilation  and 

[248] 


A   FLIXT-AND-STEEL   OUTFIT,    AND   A   MIXER'S   STEEL   MILL 

The  upper  picture  shows  a  flint-and-steel  outfit,  the  implements  for  lighting  a  fire  before 
the  days  of  matches.  The  lower  picture  shows  a  miner's  steel  mill,  which  was  used  for  giving 
light  in  mines  before  the  day  of  the  safety-lamp.  It  consists  of  a  steel  disk  which  is  rotated 
rapidly  against  a  piece  of  flint,  producing  a  stream  of  sparks.  It  was  thought  that  such  sparks 
would  not  ignite  fire-damp — a  belief  which  is  now  known  to  be  erroneous. 


THE  MINERAL  DEPTHS 

drainage,  there  is  comparatively  little  danger  of  ex- 
tensive accumulation  of  this  gas. 

The  danger  from  this  choke  damp,  therefore,  is 
one  that  concerns  the  individual  workman  rather  than 
large  bodies  of  men  or  the  structure  of  the  mine  itself. 
With  fire  damp,  however,  the  case  is  different,  as  an  ex- 
plosion of  this  gas  may  destroy  the  mine  itself  and  all 
the  workmen  in  it.  It  is,  therefore,  the  most  dreaded 
factor  in  mining,  and  is  the  one  to  which  more  atten- 
tion has  been  directed  than  to  almost  any  other  problem. 

This  fire  damp  is  a  mixture  of  carbonic  oxide  and 
marsh  gas  which,  being  lighter  than  air,  tends  to  rise 
to  the  upper  part  of  the  mines.  For  this  reason  ex- 
plosions are  more  likely  to  occur  near  the  openings 
of  the  mine,  frequently  entombing  the  workmen  in  a 
remote  part  of  the  mine  even  when  not  actually  killing 
them  by  the  explosion.  As  this  gas  is  poisonous  as 
well  as  explosive  the  miners  who  survive  the  explosion 
may  succumb  eventually  to  suffocation. 

Previous  to  the  year  1816  no  means  had  been  devised 
for  averting  the  explosions  of  fire  damp  except  the 
uncertain  one  of  watching  the  flame  of  the  candle 
with  which  the  miner  was  working.  On  coming  in 
contact  with  air  mildly  contaminated  with  fire  damp 
the  candle  flame  takes  on  a  blue  tint  and  assumes  a 
peculiarly  elongated  shape  which  may  be  instantly  de- 
tected by  a  watchful  workman.  But  miners  were,  and 
still  are,  a  proverbially  careless  class  of  men  even  where 
a  matter  of  life  and  death  is  concerned,  and  too  fre- 
quently gave  no  heed  to  the  warning  flame.  But  in  1816 
Sir  Humphrey  Davy  invented  his  safety  lamp,  a  device 

[249] 


THE   CONQUEST   OF   NATURE 

that  has  been  the  means  of  saving  thousands  of  lives, 
and  which  has  not  as  yet  been  entirely  supplanted  by  any 
modern  invention. 

In  making  his  numerous  experiments,  Davy  had  ob- 
served that  iron-wire  gauze  is  such  a  good  conductor 
of  heat  that  a  flame  enclosed  in  such  gauze  could  not 
pass  readily  through  meshes  to  ignite  a  gas  on  the  out- 
side. He  found  by  experiment  that  a  considerable 
quantity  of  explosive  gas  might  be  brought  into  contact 
with  the  gauze  surrounding  a  flame,  and  no  explo- 
sion occur.  At  the  same  time  this  gas  would  give 
warning  of  its  presence  by  changing  the  color  of  the 
flame.  When  a  lamp  was  made  with  a  surrounding 
gauze  having  seven  hundred  and  eighty  meshes  to  the 
square  inch,  it  was  found  to  give  sufficient  light  and 
at  the  same  time  to  be  practically  non-explosive  in 
the  presence  of  ordinary  quantities  of  gas. 

One  would  suppose  that  such  a  life-saving  invention 
would  have  been  eagerly  adopted  by  the  men  whose 
lives  it  protected;  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  owing  to 
certain  inconveniences  of  Davy's  lamps,  many  miners 
refused  to  use  them  until  forced  to  do  so  by  the  mine- 
owners.  One  of  these  disadvantages  was  that  this 
safety  lamp  gave  a  poor  light  overhead.  This  is  par- 
ticularly annoying  to  the  miner,  who  wishes  always 
to  watch  the  condition  of  the  ceiling  under  which  he 
is  working.  When  not  under  constant  observation, 
therefore,  a  miner  would  frequently  remove  the  gauze 
of  the  lamp  and  work  by  the  open  flame,  regardless 
of  consequences.  Or  again,  he  would  sometimes  for- 
getfully use  the  flame  for  lighting  his  pipe.  To  over- 

[250] 


THE  MINERAL  DEPTHS 

come  the  possibility  of  such  forgetfulness  or  wilful  dis- 
obedience, it  was  found  necessary  to  equip  safety  lamps 
with  locking  devices,  so  that  the  miner  had  no  means  of 
access  to  the  open  flame  of  his  lamp  once  it  had  been 
lighted. 

Since  the  time  of  the  first  Davy  safety  lamp  there 
have  been  numerous  improvements  in  mechani- 
cal details,  although  the  general  principle  remains 
unchanged.  One  of  these  improvements  is  a  device 
whereby  the  lamp,  when  accidentally  extinguished, 
may  be  relighted  without  opening  it,  and  without  the 
use  of  matches.  This  is  done  by  means  of  little  strips 
of  paper  containing  patches  of  a  fulminating  substance 
which  is  ignited  by  friction,  working  on  the  same  prin- 
ciple as  the  paper  percussion  caps  used  on  toy  pistols. 

But  even  the  improved  safety  lamp  seems  likely  to 
disappear  from  mines  within  the  next  few  years,  now 
that  electricity  has  come  into  such  general  use.  As 
yet,  however,  no  satisfactory  portable  electric  lamp 
or  lantern  has  been  perfected,  such  lamps  being  as  a 
rule  too  heavy,  expensive,  and  unreliable.  Even  if 
these  defects  were  remedied,  the  advantage  would  still 
lie  with  the  Davy  lamp,  since  the  electric  lamp,  being 
enclosed,  cannot  be  used  for  the  detection  of  fire  damp. 
But  this  advantage  of  the  safety  lamp  is  becoming  less 
important,  since  well-regulated  mines  are  now  more 
thoroughly  ventilated,  and  the  danger  from  fire  damp 
correspondingly  lessened. 

In  some  Continental  mines  the  experiment  has  been 
tried  of  constantly  consuming  the  fire  damp,  before 
it  has  had  time  to  accumulate  in  explosive  quantities, 


THE   CONQUEST   OF   NATURE 

by  means  of  numerous  open  lights  kept  constantly 
burning.  This  method  is  effective,  but  since  the  numer- 
ous lights  consume  the  precious  oxygen  of  the  air  as 
well  as  the  damp,  the  method  has  never  become  pop- 
ular. Obviously,  then,  the  question  of  mine  ventilation 
is  closely  associated  with  that  of  lighting. 

Probably  the  simplest  method  of  properly  venti- 
lating a  mine  is  that  of  having  two  openings  at  the 
surface,  one  on  a  much  higher  level  than  the  other 
if  the  mine  is  on  a  hillside,  the  lower  one  corresponding 
to  the  lowest  portion  of  the  mine  where  possible.  By 
such  an  arrangement  natural  currents  will  be  estab- 
lished, and  may  be  controlled  and  distributed  through 
the  mine  by  doors  or  permanent  partitions,  or  aided 
by  fans.  But  of  course  only  a  comparatively  small 
number  of  mines  are  so  situated  that  this  system  can 
be  used. 

It  is  possible,  of  course,  to  ventilate  a  mine  from  a 
single  shaft  or  opening  by  use  of  double  sets  of  pipes, 
one  for  admitting  air  and  the  other  for  expelling  it; 
but  this  system  is  obviously  not  an  ideal  one,  and  is 
prohibited  by  law  in  most  mining  districts.  Such 
laws  usually  stipulate  that  there  must  be  at  least  two 
openings  situated  at  some  distance  from  each  other. 

The  older  method  of  creating  air  currents  was  by 
means  of  furnaces,  but  this  method,  while  very  effective, 
is  expensive  and  dangerous.  In  using  this  system  a 
furnace  is  built  near  the  outlet  of  the  air  shaft,  the  com- 
bustion of  the  fuel  creating  the  necessary  draught. 
But  in  the  nature  of  things  this  furnace  is  a  constant 
menace  to  the  mine,  besides  being  an  extremely  waste - 

[252] 


THE  MINERAL  DEPTHS 

ful  expenditure  of  energy.  The  modern  method  of 
ventilating  is  by  means  of  rotary  fans,  the  electric  fan 
having  practically  solved  the  problem.  The  air  cur- 
rents established  by  such  fans  are  controlled  either  by 
the  doors  in  the  passages,  or  by  means  of  auxiliary  fans. 
In  addition,  jets  of  compressed  air  are  sometimes  used, 
and  have  become  very  popular. 

Another  important  problem  that  constantly  confronts 
the  mining  engineer  is  that  of  drainage.  Mines  are, 
of  course,  great  reservoirs  for  the  accumulation  of 
water,  which  must  be  drained  or  pumped  out  continu- 
ally; and  as  the  shafts  are  sunk  deeper  and  deeper  it 
becomes  increasingly  difficult  to  raise  the  water  to  the 
surface.  Special  means  and  machinery  are  employed 
for  this  purpose  which  will  be  considered  more  in  detail 
in  a  moment. 


ELECTRIC  MACHINERY  IN  MINING 

Electricity  is,  of  course,  the  great  revolutionary  fac- 
tor in  modern  mining.  There  is  scarcely  a  department 
of  mining  in  which  electric  power  has  not  wrought 
revolutionary  changes  in  recent  years;  and  the  sub- 
ject has  become  so  important  and  so  thoroughly  spe- 
cialized as  to  "  create  a  literature  and  a  technology  of 
its  own."  From  the  electric  drill,  working  hundreds  of 
feet  below  the  surface  of  the  earth,  to  the  delicate  test- 
ing-instruments in  the  laboratory  of  the  assaying  offices, 
the  effect  of  this  electrical  revolution  is  being  felt 
progressively  more  and  more  every  year. 

Moreover,  electricity,  on  account  of  its  transmuta- 

[253] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

bility,  has  made  accessible  many  important  mining 
sites  hitherto  unworkable.  Rich  mines  are  now  in  oper- 
ation on  an  economical  basis  which,  thirty  years  ago, 
were  worthless  on  account  of  their  isolation .  When  such 
mines  were  situated  in  mountainous  regions  where 
there  was  no  coal  supply  at  hand  for  creating  steam 
power,  and  where  the  only  available  water  power  was 
perhaps  several  miles  away,  operations  on  a  paying 
basis  were  out  of  the  question  before  the  era  of  electric 
power. 

At  present,  however,  the  question  of  distance  of  the 
seat  of  power  has  been  practically  eliminated  by  the 
possibilities  of  electric  conduction.  A  stream,  situated 
miles  away,  when  harnessed  to  a  turbine  and  electric 
motors  may  afford  a  source  of  power  more  economical 
than  could  be  furnished  a  few  years  ago  by  a  power 
plant  supplied  with  fuel  at  the  very  door  of  the  mine. 
We  need  not  enter  into  the  details  of  this  transmission 
of  power,  however,  since  the  subject  has  been  discussed 
in  a  general  way  in  another  place.  Our  subject  here 
is  rather  to  deal  with  the  application  of  electricity  to 
certain  mining  implements  of  special  importance. 

One  of  the  most  useful  acquisitions  to  the  equipment 
of  the  modern  miner  is  a  portable  mechanical  drill, 
which  makes  it  possible  for  him  to  dispense  with  the 
time-honored  pick,  hammer,  and  hand -drill.  But  it 
is  only  recently  that  inventors  have  been  able  to  pro- 
duce this  implement.  The  great  difficulty  has  lain  in 
the  fact  that  a  reciprocating  motion,  which  is  essential 
for  certain  kinds  of  drilling,  is  not  readily  secured  with 
electric  power.  The  use  of  steam  or  compressed  air 

1 254.1 


THE  MINERAL  DEPTHS 

for  operating  such  reciprocating  drills  presents  no 
mechanical  difficulties,  and  the  fact  that  power  of  this 
kind  can  be  transmitted  long  distances  by  the  use  of 
flexible  tubes  made  such  drills  popular  for  several 
years.  But  the  cost  of  operating  such  drills  is  so 
much  greater  than  that  of  the  new  electric  drills  that  they 
are  rapidly  being  replaced  in  mining  work. 

The  first  attempts  to  produce  an  electric  drill  with 
a  reciprocating  motion  were  so  unsuccessful  that  in- 
ventors turned  their  attention  to  perfecting  some  ro- 
tary device.  This  proved  more  successful,  and  rotary 
drills,  operating  long  augers  and  acting  like  ordinary 
wood-boring  machines,  are  now  used  extensively 
for  certain  kinds  of  drilling.  The  more  recent  forms 
perform  the  same  amount  of  work  as  the  air  drill, 
with  a  consumption  of  about  one-tenth  the  power. 
Moreover,  none  of  the  energy  is  lost  at  high  altitudes 
as  in  the  case  of  air  drills,  and  they  are  not  affected  by 
low  temperatures  which  sometimes  render  the  air 
drill  inoperable.  On  the  other  hand,  the  air  drill  is 
a  hardy  implement,  capable  of  withstanding  very  rough 
usage,  whereas  the  electric  drill  is  probably  the  more 
economical,  as  well  as  the  more  convenient  drill  of 
the  two. 

In  certain  kinds  of  mining,  such  as  in  the  potash 
mines  of  Europe  and  the  coal  mines  of  America,  these 
electric  drills  operating  their  long  augers  have  been 
found  particularly  useful.  The  ordinary  type  of  drill 
is  so  arranged  that  it  can  be  operated  at  any  angle, 
vertically  or  horizontally.  The  lighter  forms  are 
mounted  on  upright  stands,  with  screws  at  the  ends 

[255] 


THE   CONQUEST   OF  NATURE 

for  fastening  to  the  floor  and  roof,  although  the  heavier 
types  are  sometimes  mounted  on  trucks.  The  motor, 
which  is  not  much  larger  or  heavier  than  an  ordinary 
fan  motor,  is  fastened  to  the  upright  and  is  from  four 
to  six  horse-power.  This  connects  with  a  flexible 
wire  which  transmits  the  power  from  the  generating 
station,  frequently  several  miles  away.  The  auger, 
which  is  about  the  largest  part  of  the  machine  and  en- 
tirely out  of  proportion  to  the  little  motor  that  drives 
it,  is  simply  a  long  bar  of  steel,  twisted  spirally  at  the 
cutting-end  like  an  ordinary  wood  auger. 

From  the  workman's  standpoint  these  rotary  drills 
are  infinitely  superior  to  reciprocating  or  percussion 
drills,  where  the  constant  jarring  of  the  machine,  be- 
sides being  extremely  tiresome,  sometimes  produces 
the  serious  disease  known  as  neuritis.  Various  means 
have  been  attempted  to  prevent  this,  such  as  by  over- 
coming the  jar  in  a  measure  by  flexible  levers  which 
do  not  transmit  the  vibrations  to  the  hands  and  arms; 
but  such  attempts  are  only  partially  successful,  and 
a  certain  amount  of  jarring  cannot  be  avoided.  In 
the  rotary  electric  drills  there  is  none  of  this,  the  work- 
men simply  controlling  the  drill  and  the  motor  with 
levers,  and  receiving  at  most  only  a  slight  jar  from  the 
vibrations  of  the  auger. 

TRACTION  IN  MINING 

In  recent  years  electric  traction  engines  for  use  in 
mines  have  been  rapidly  replacing  horse-  and  mule- 
power,  and  have  become  important  economic  factors 

[256] 


THE  MINERAL  DEPTHS 

in  mining  operations.  The  pioneer  of  this  type  of 
locomotive  seems  to  have  been  one  built  by  Mr.  W.  M. 
Schlessinger  for  one  of  the  collieries  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Railroad  about  1882,  and  which  has  remained  in  active 
use  ever  since.  The  total  weight  of  this  locomotive 
was  five  tons  and  it  was  equipped  with  thirty-two 
horse-power  electric  motors.  The  current  was  supplied 
through  a  trolley  pole  which  took  the  current  from  a 
T-shaped  rail  placed  above  and  at  one  side  of  the  track. 
The  train  hauled  by  this  locomotive  consisted  of  fifteen 
cars,  carrying  from  two  to  three  tons  of  coal  each. 

Following  this  first  mining-locomotive  a  great  num- 
ber were  quickly  produced.  In  Pennsylvania  alone 
something  like  four  hundred  are  now  in  use,  and  in 
Illinois  two  million  tons  of  coal  were  hauled  in  this 
manner  in  twelve  mines  in  1901.  It  was  estimated 
at  the  beginning  of  the  present  century  that  some  3,000 
electric  locomotives  specially  built  for  mining  were  in 
use  in  the  United  States  alone. 

The  earlier  types  of  mining-locomotives  were  much 
higher  and  bulkier  than  those  of  more  recent  con- 
struction, the  motors  being  mounted  above  the  trucks 
and  geared  downward.  Very  soon,  however,  the 
" turtle-back"  or  "terrapin-back"  type  was  developed, 
with  the  motors  brought  close  to  the  ground,  so  that 
even  quite  a  heavy  locomotive  might  not  be  much  higher 
than  the  diameter  of  its  driving-wheels.  When  these 
queer-looking  machines  were  boxed  in  so  that  even  the 
wheels  were  covered,  they  lost  all  resemblance  to  loco- 
motives or  vehicles  of  any  kind,  appearing  like  low, 
rectangular  metal  boxes  placed  upon  the  car  tracks, 

VOL.  VI.— 17  [257] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

that  glided  along  the  rails  in  some  mysterious  manner. 
The  presence  of  the  trolley  pole  helped  to  dispel  this 
illusion,  but  in  some  instances  this  is  wanting,  the  power 
being  taken  from  a  third  rail. 

With  these  locomotives,  some  of  them  not  more  than 
two  and  a  half  feet  high,  it  was  possible  to  haul  trains 
even  in  very  low  and  narrow  passages — much  lower, 
in  fact,  than  could  be  entered  by  the  little  mules  used 
in  former  years.  This  in  itself  was  revolutionary  in 
its  effects,  as  many  thin  veins  were  thus  made  workable. 

This  type  of  low  locomotive  is  the  one  that  has  come 
into  general  use  throughout  the  world.  Such  loco- 
motives range  in  size  from  two  to  twenty  tons,  with 
wheel  gauges  from  a  foot  and  a  half  wide  to  the  stand- 
ard railway  gauge  of  four  feet,  eight  and  a  half  inches. 
Locomotives  weighing  more  than  twenty  tons  are 
not  in  general  use  on  account  of  the  small  size  of  the 
mine  entrances. 

In  the  ordinary  types  the  motorman  sits  in  front, 
controlling  the  locomotive  with  levers  and  mechanical 
brakes  placed  within  easy  reach,  but  sunk  as  low  as 
possible.  As  a  rule,  the  motors  are  geared  to  the  truck 
axles,  either  inside  or  outside  the  locomotive  frame. 
An  overhead  copper  wire  supplies  the  current  by  con- 
tact with  a  grooved  trolley  wheel  mounted  on  the  end 
of  the  regulation  trolley  pole.  An  electric  headlight 
is  used,  and  the  ordinary  speed  attained  by  the  com- 
pact motors  is  from  six  to  ten  miles  an  hour. 

The  amount  of  work  that  can  be  performed  by  one 
of  these  little,  flat,  box-like  locomotives  is  entirely  out 
of  proportion  to  its  size.  A  lo-ton  locomotive  in  a 

[258] 


THE  MINERAL  DEPTHS 

Pennsylvania  mine  hauled  about  150,000  tons  of  coal 
in  a  year  at  a  cost  of  less  than  one-tenth  of  a  cent  per 
ton  for  repairs.  The  usual  train  was  made  up  of 
thirty-five  cars,  each  loaded  with  about  3,700  pounds 
of  coal,  which  was  hauled  up  a  three-per-cent  grade. 
The  cost  of  such  haulage  was  only  about  2.76  cents 
per  ton,  as  against  7.15  cents  when  hauled  by  mule- 
power.  These  figures  may  be  considered  represent- 
ative, as  other  mines  show  similar  results. 

A  particular  advantage  has  been  gained  by  the  use 
of  electric  locomotives  over  older  methods  in  the  proc- 
ess of  "gathering"  the  cars.  In  many  coal  mines, 
even  when  the  main  hauling  is  done  by  electricity, 
the  gathering  or  collecting  of  cars  from  the  working 
faces  of  the  rooms  was  formerly  done  either  by  mule- 
power  or  by  hand.  In  some  low- veined  mines,  hand 
power  alone  was  used,  on  account  of  the  low  roof. 

In  such  places,  low,  compressed-air  locomotives  were 
sometimes  used;  but  these  were  very  expensive. 
These  have  now  been  very  generally  replaced  by 
" turtle-back"  electric  locomotives,  operated  at  a  dis- 
tance from  the  main  trolley  wire  by  means  of  long, 
flexible  cables,  so  geared  that  they  can  be  paid  out 
or  coiled  as  desired. 

On  the  main  line  these  locomotives  take  the  current 
from  the  trolley  wire  by  means  of  the  trolley  pole,  but 
when  the  place  for  gathering  is  reached,  the  connection 
is  made  by  means  of  the  flexible  cable,  and  the  trolley 
pole  fastened  down  so  as  not  to  be  in  the  way.  This 
allows  the  locomotive  to  push  the  little  cars  into  the 
rooms  far  removed  from  the  main  line,  with  passages 

[259] 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

too  low  and  narrow  to  allow  the  use  of  the  trolley  pole. 
By  the  time  the  last  cars  have  been  delivered  the  first 
cars  of  the  train  have  been  filled,  and  the  process  of 
gathering  may  be  begun  at  once,  and  the  loaded  train 
made  up  for  the  return  trip.  With  such  a  locomotive 
two  men  can  distribute  and  gather  up  from  one  hundred 
to  one  hundred  and  twenty  cars  in  an  ordinary  eight- 
hour  working-day,  hauling  from  three  hundred  to  three 
hundred  and  fifty  tons  of  coal. 

In  certain  regions,  a  system  of  third-rail  current- 
supply  is  used,  this  rail  being  also  a  tooth  rail  with  which 
a  cog  on  the  locomotive  works  frictionally.  For  climb- 
ing steep  grades  this  system  of  cogged  rails  has  many 
advantages  over  other  systems. 

Another  type  of  electric  locomotive  used  in  some 
mines  is  a  self-propelling  or  automobile  one  equipped 
with  storage  batteries.  Such  locomotives  do  away 
with  the  inconvenience  and  dangers  of  contact  rails 
or  trolley  wires,  but  are  heavy  and  expensive.  A  com- 
promise locomotive,  particularly  useful  for  gathering,  is 
one  equipped  with  both  trolley  pole  and  storage  bat- 
teries. This  locomotive  is  so  made  that  the  storage 
batteries  are  charged  while  it  is  running  with  the  trol- 
ley connection,  so  that  no  time  is  lost  in  the  charging 
process.  Such  locomotives  have  been  found  very  sat- 
isfactory for  many  purposes,  and  but  for  the  imper- 
fections common  to  all  storage  batteries  would  be 
ideal  in  many  ways.  They  can  be  worked  over  any 
improvised  track,  regardless  of  distance,  which  is  an 
advantage  over  the  flexible- cable  system  where  dis- 
tances are  limited  by  the  length  of  cable;  and  the 


THE  MINERAL  DEPTHS 

first  cost  of  the  battery  is  no  more  than  the  outlay  on 
trolley  wires  and  supports.  It  is  also  claimed  that  the 
cost  of  maintenance  is  relatively  low,  but  it  is  doubtful 
if  it  equals  the  trolley  or  third-rail  systems  in  this  respect. 

Closely  allied  to  the  systems  of  traction  by  electric 
locomotives,  is  the  modern  electric  telpherage  system. 
Until  quite  recently  the  haulage  of  ores  and  other  raw 
materials  used  in  mining,  when  done  aerially,  has  been 
by  means  of  travelling  rope  or  cable.  When  distances 
to  be  travelled  in  this  manner  are  short,  such  as  across 
streams  or  valleys,  where  no  supports  are  used,  the 
term  "  cable  way"  is  generally  applied;  but  where  the 
distance  is  so  long  that  supports  are  necessary,  the  term 
"  tramway  cable  "  is  used.  It  is  to  these  longer  systems 
that  electric  telpherage  is  particularly  applicable. 

The  advantage  of  such  an  electric  system  over  the 
older  method  is  the  same  as  the  advantages  of  the  trol- 
ley road  over  the  cable,  all  ropes  and  cables  being 
stationary,  the  electric  motor,  or  "telpher,"  travelling 
along  on  one  cable  and  taking  its  current  by  means  of 
a  trolley  pole  from  a  wire  above.  For  heavier  work 
metal  rails  supported  between  posts  are  employed  in 
place  of  a  flexible  cable,  and  over  such  systems  loads 
of  several  tons  can  be  hauled. 

Such  an  electric  telpher  system  is  used  in  one  of  the 
Cuban  limestone  quarries,  the  telpher  and  cars  travel- 
ling a  long  distance  upon  cables,  except  at  some  of  the 
curves,  where  solid  rails  are  substituted,  hauling  a 
load  of  a  thousand  pounds  at  a  speed  of  from  twelve 
to  fifteen  miles  an  hour.  The  current  comes  from  a 
distant  source,  and  the  telpher  is  so  arranged  that  it 


THE   CONQUEST  OF   NATURE 

travels  automatically  when  the  current  is  turned  on, 
stopping  when  the  current  is  cut  off.  This  is  quite  a 
common  arrangement  for  smaller  telphers,  but  in  the 
larger  ones  a  man  travels  with  the  telpher  and  load, 
controlling  the  train  just  as  in  the  case  of  the  ordinary 
trolley  system. 

The  various  processes  of  hoisting  in  mines  by  elec- 
tricity is  closely  akin  to  that  of  traction,  since,  after  all, 
"an  elevator  is  virtually  a  railway  with  a  loo-per-cent 
grade. "  As  such  work  is  done  spasmodically,  long 
periods  of  rest  intervening  between  actual  periods  of 
work,  a  great  deal  of  energy  is  wasted  by  steam  hoisting 
engines,  where  a  certain  pressure  of  steam  in  the  boiler 
must  be  maintained  at  all  times.  For  this  reason 
electrical  energy  for  hoisting  has  come  rapidly  into 
popularity  in  recent  years.  "The  throttling  of  steam 
to  control  speed/'  said  Mr.  F.  O.  Blackwell  in  address- 
ing the  American  Institute  of  Mining  Engineers,  "the 
necessity  for  reversing  the  engine,  the  variation  in  steam 
pressure,  the  absence  of  condensing  apparatus,  the 
cooling  and  large  clearance  of  cylinders,  and  the  con- 
densation and  leakage  of  steam  pipes  when  doing  no 
work,  are  all  against  the  steam  hoisting  engine.  One 
of  the  largest  hoisting  engines  in  the  world  was  recently 
tested  and  found  to  take  sixty  pounds  of  steam  per 
indicated  horse-power  per  hour.  The  electric  motor, 
on  the  other  hand,  is  ideal  for  intermittent  work.  It 
wastes  absolutely  no  energy  when  at  rest,  there  being 
no  leakage  or  condensation.  Its  efficiency  is  high, 
from  one-quarter  load  to  twice  full  load/' 

There  seems  to  be  practically  no  difference  as  far  as 
[262] 


THE  MINERAL  DEPTHS 

the  element  of  danger  is  concerned  between  steam  and 
electric  hoists.  The  difference  is  largely  one  of  econ- 
omy. The  importance  of  this  is  shown  by  the  recent 
comparisons  in  a  gold  mine  which  has  replaced  its 
steam  apparatus  by  electricity.  In  this  mine  the  hoist 
moves  through  the  shaft  at  a  rate  of  over  twelve  hundred 
feet  per  minute,  elevating  five  hundred  tons  of  ore 
daily  on  double-decked  cages.  It  is  estimated  that 
this  system  shows  an  efficiency  of  75  per  cent,  taking 
into  account  losses  of  all  kinds,  with  a  resulting  re- 
duction of  cost  of  from  seven  to  twenty  dollars  per 
horse-power  per  month. 

Results  comparing  very  favorably  with  these  have 
been  obtained  also  in  some  of  the  mines  in  Germany 
and  Bohemia,  where  electricity  has  been  introduced  ex- 
tensively in  mining.  In  one  of  these  mines  the  daily 
hoisting  capacity  is  twenty-seven  hundred  tons  from 
a  depth  of  over  sixteen  hundred  feet,  at  a  speed  of  over 
fifty-two  feet  per  second.  In  the  Comstock  mine,  at 
Virginia  City,  Nev.,  electric  hoists  are  used  which 
obtain  their  power  from  a  plant  situated  on  the  Tru- 
chee  River  thirty-two  miles  away. 

ELECTRIC  MINING  PUMPS 

In  pumping,  which  is  always  one  of  the  important 
items  in  mining,  the  use  of  electric  power  has  been  found 
quite  as  advantageous  as  in  the  other  fields  of  its 
application.  No  special  features  are  embodied  In 
most  of  the  types  of  mining  pumps  over  the  rotary 
and  reciprocating  types  used  for  ordinary  purposes, 

[263] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

except  perhaps  a  type  of  pump  known  as  the  sinking 
pump.  This  is  a  movable  pump  that  can  be  easily 
lowered  from  one  place  to  another,  and  has  proved  to 
be  a  great  time-saver  over  steam  or  air  pumps  used 
for  similar  purposes. 

For  some  time  the  question  of  the  durability  of  elec- 
tric pumps  was  in  dispute,  but  developments  in  quite 
recent  years  seem  to  prove  that,  in  some  instances  at 
least,  such  pumps  are  practically  indestructible. 

"The  question  of  what  would  happen  to  an  electric 
motor  in  a  mine  if  pumps  and  motors  get  flooded  has 
often  come  up.  From  tests  made  recently  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Liege,  Belgium,  it  appears  that  a  suitably 
designed  polyphase  alternating- current  motor  of  a  type 
largely  used  on  the  continent  of  Europe  was  completely 
submerged  in  water.  It  was  run  for  a  quarter  of  an 
hour;  it  was  then  stopped  and  allowed  to  remain  sub- 
merged, under  official  seal,  for  twenty-four  hours,  at 
the  end  of  which  time  it  was  again  run  for  a  few  min- 
utes. It  was  next  removed  from  the  water,  again  put 
under  seal,  and  left  to  dry  for  twenty-four  hours. 
The  insulation  was  then  tested,  and  the  motor  was 
found  to  be  in  perfect  order.  It  would  be  hard  to 
imagine  a  test  more  severe  than  this. 

"As  bearing  upon  this  question  it  is  interesting  to 
note  that  among  the  pumps  in  use  around  Johannes- 
burg, South  Africa,  at  the  beginning  of  the  Anglo-Boer 
War,  there  were  twelve  of  a  well-known  American 
make,  each  of  which  was  operated  by  a  5o-horse- 
power  induction  motor  of  American  construction  with 
three  i5~kilowatt  transformers.  When  the  mines  were 

[264] 


THE  MINERAL  DEPTHS 

shut  down,  upon  the  breaking  out  of  the  war,  the  water 
rose  so  rapidly  that  it  was  impossible  to  remove  the 
pumps,  motors,  transformers,  etc.,  and  consequently 
they  remained  under  500  to  1,000  feet  of  water. 
Two  and  a  half  years  later,  when  peace  was  declared 
in  South  Africa,  the  water  in  the  shaft  was  pumped  out 
and  the  electrical  apparatus  was  removed  to  the  sur- 
face. Three  of  the  motors  were  stripped  and  completely 
rewound,  but  to  the  general  surprise  of  the  experts 
the  condition  of  the  insulation  indicated  that  the  re- 
winding might  not  be  absolutely  necessary.  Accord- 
ingly the  other  nine  motors  were  thoroughly  dried  in 
an  oven  and  then  soaked  in  oil.  After  this  treatment 
they  were  rigidly  tested,  proved  to  be  all  right,  and  were 
at  once  restored  to  regular  service  in  the  mine.  The 
transformers  were  treated  in  the  same  manner  as  the 
motors,  with  equally  gratifying  results. 

"An  interesting  illustration  of  the  flexibility  and 
adaptability  of  electric  motors  for  pumping  purposes 
is  furnished  by  the  Gneisenau  mine,  near  Dortmund, 
Germany,  where  a  very  large  electric  mining  plant 
was  installed  in  1903.  In  this  instance  the  pump  is 
located  more  than  1,200  feet  below  the  surface,  and  the 
difficulties  of  installing  the  apparatus  were  so  great, 
on  account  of  the  small  cross  section  of  the  shaft,  that 
it  was  necessary  to  build  up  the  motor  in  the  pumping 
chamber,  the  material  being  transported  through  the 
wet  shaft  and  the  winding  of  the  coils  being  performed 
in  situ. 

"An  interesting  use  of  the  electric  pump  associated 
with  the  telephone  in  connection  with  mining  is  noted 

[265] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

by  Mr.  W.  B.  Clarke.  In  one  coal  mine,  where  an 
electric  pump  is  located  in  a  worked-out  portion  of 
the  mine,  the  circuits  are  so  arranged  that  the  pump 
is  started  from  the  power  house,  some  distance  away. 
Near  the  pump  is  placed  a  telephone  transmitter  con- 
nected to  a  receiver  in  the  power  house.  To  start  the 
motors,  or  to  ascertain  whether  the  pumps  are  working 
properly,  the  engineer  merely  listens  at  the  telephone 
receiver,  without  leaving  his  post." 


ELECTRICITY   IN  COAL  MINING 

In  coal  mining  the  effect  of  the  use  of  electrical 
machinery  has  been  revolutionary  in  recent  years,  par- 
ticularly in  the  development  of  electric  coal  cutters. 
The  old  method  of  picking  out  coal  by  hand,  where 
the  miner  labored  with  the  heavy  pick,  working  in  all 
manner  of  cramped  and  dangerous  positions,  was  sup- 
planted a  few  years  ago  by  the  "puncher"  machine, 
worked  by  steam  or  compressed  air.  With  these  ma- 
chines the  coal  was  picked  out  just  as  in  the  case  of 
the  hand  method,  except  that  the  energy  was  derived 
from  some  power  other  than  muscular.  So  that  while 
these  machines  worked  more  rapidly  than  the  hand 
picks,  they  utilized  the  same  general  principle  in  apply- 
ing their  energy. 

Within  recent  years,  however,  various  coal- cutting 
machines  have  been  devised,  with  which  the  coal  was 
actually  cut,  or  sawed  out,  these  machines  being  pecu- 
liarly well  adapted  to  using  the  electric  current. 
The  most  practical  and  popular  form  of  machine  is 


THE  MINERAL  DEPTHS 

one  in  which  the  sawing  is  done  by  an  endless  chain, 
the  links  of  which  are  provided  with  a  cutting  blade. 
These  have  been  very  generally  replacing  the  com. 
pressed-air  or  pick  type  of  machine,  and  their  popu^ 
larity  accounts  largely  for  the  enormous  increase  in 
the  use  of  coal- mining  machinery  during  the  past 
decade.  Thus  in  1898  there  were  2,622  coal- mining 
machines  in  use  in  the  United  States.  Four  years 
later  this  number  had  more  than  doubled,  the  increase 
being  due  largely  to  the  adoption  of  chain  machines. 

Like  electric  locomotives,  and  for  similar  reasons,  the 
coal-cutting  machines  are  low,  broad,  flat  machines, 
from  eighteen  to  twenty-eight  inches  high.  They 
rest  upon  a  flat  shoeboard  that  can  be  moved  easily 
along  the  face  of  the  coal.  An  ordinary  machine 
weighs  in  the  neighborhood  of  a  ton,  and  requires 
two  men  to  operate.  The  apparatus  is  described 
briefly  as  follows: 

"  On  an  outside  frame,  consisting  of  two  steel  channel 
bars  and  two  angle  irons  riveted  to  steel  cross  ties, 
rests  a  sliding  frame  consisting  of  a  heavy  channel 
or  centre  rail,  to  which  is  bolted  the  cutter  head.  The 
cutter  head  is  made  entirely  of  two  milled  steel  plates, 
which  bolt  together,  forming  the  front  guide  for  the 
cutter  chain.  This  chain,  which  is  made  of  solid  cast 
steel  links  connected  by  drop  forge  straps,  is  carried 
around  idlers  or  sprockets  placed  at  each  end  of  the 
cutter  head  and  along  the  chain  guides  at  the  side  to 
the  rear  of  the  machine,  where  it  engages  with  and  re- 
ceives its  power  from  a  third  sprocket,  under  the 
motor.  The  electric  motor,  which  is  of  ironclad 

[267] 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

multipolar  type,  rests  upon  a  steel  carriage,  which  forms 
the  bearing  for  the  main  shaft  ...  A  reversing  switch 
is  provided,  so  that  the  truck  can  travel  in  either  di- 
rection, and  when  the  machine  has  reached  its  stopping 
point,  either  forward  or  backward,  it  is  checked  by  an 
automatic  cut-off.  The  return  travel  is  made  in  about 
one-fourth  of  the  time  required  to  make  the  cut." 

In  veins  of  coal  of  a  thickness  from  twenty-eight  to 
thirty  inches,  such  a  machine  will  cut  about  one  hun- 
dred tons  of  coal  in  a  day.  The  cost  of  production 
with  such  machines  has  been  estimated  at  about 
sixty-three  cents  a  ton,  as  against  ninety  cents  as  the 
cost  of  pick  mining  in  rooms, — a  saving  of  about 
twenty-seven  cents  a  ton.  Since  it  is  estimated  that 
for  a  cost  of  $10,000  an  electrical  equipment  can 
be  installed  capable  of  working  four  such  machines 
besides  affording  power  for  lighting,  pumping,  venti- 
lation of  the  mine,  etc.,  thus  saving  something  like 
$100  a  day  for  the  operator,  the  great  popularity  of  these 
machines  is  readily  understood. 

After  such  a  machine  has  been  placed  in  position, 
a  cut  some  four  feet  wide,  four  or  five  inches  high,  and 
six  feet  deep  can  be  made  in  five  minutes,  with  the  ex- 
penditure of  very  little  energy  on  the  part  of  the  work- 
men. One  of  the  largest  cuttings  ever  recorded  by 
one  of  these  machines  is  1,700  square  feet  in  nine  and 
one-half  hours,  although  this  may  have  been  exceeded 
and  not  recorded. 

Among  the  several  advantages  claimed  for  the  chain 
machine  over  the  older  pick  machines  is  the  small 
amount  of  slack  coal  produced,  and  the  absence  of 

[268] 


THE  MINERAL  DEPTHS 

the  racking  vibrations  that  exhaust  the  workmen, 
and,  like  the  air  drills,  sometimes  cause  serious  dis- 
eases. On  the  other  hand  the  advocates  of  the  pick 
machines  point  out  that  they  can  be  used  in  mines  too 
narrow  for  the  introduction  of  chain  machines.  They 
show  also  that  there  is  a  constant  element  of  danger 
from  motor-driven  machines  in  mines  where  the  quan- 
tity of  gas  present  makes  it  necessary  to  use  safety 
lamps,  on  account  of  the  sparking  of  the  machines 
which  may  produce  explosions.  Both  these  claims 
are  valid,  but  apply  only  to  special  cases,  or  to  certain 
mines,  and  do  not  affect  the  general  popularity  of  the 
chain  machines. 

There  are  several  different  types  of  chain  cutting  ma- 
chines, such  as  "long- wall  machines,"  and  "shearing 
machines,"  but  these  need  not  be  considered  in  detail 
here.  The  general  principle  upon  which  they  work  is 
the  same  as  the  ordinary  chain  machine,  the  difference 
being  in  the  method  of  applying  it  for  use  in  special 
situations. 

ELECTRIC  LIGHTING  OF  MINES 

For  many  obvious  reasons  the  ideal  light  for  mining 
purposes  is  one  in  which  the  danger  from  the  open 
flame  is  avoided,  particularly  in  well- ventilated  mines, 
or  mines  under  careful  supervision,  where  the  danger 
from  inflammable  gases  is  slight.  The  incandescent 
electric  light,  therefore,  has  become  practically  indis- 
pensable in  modern  mining  operations.  For  certain 
purposes  and  in  certain  locations  where  an  intense 

[269] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

light  is  desirable  and  where  there  is  no  danger  from 
combustible  gases,  arc  lights  are  used  to  a  limited  ex- 
tent. But  there  is  constant  danger  from  the  open 
flame  in  using  such  lights,  and  also  from  the  connecting 
wires  leading  to  them.  Furthermore,  such  intense 
light  is  not  usually  necessary  in  the  narrow  passages 
of  the  mine. 

To  be  sure,  there  is  a  certain  element  of  danger  even 
with  incandescent  lights  on  account  of  the  possibility 
of  breakage  of  the  globes,  and  of  short-circuiting  where 
improper  wiring  has  been  done.  To  overcome  as 
much  as  possible  the  dangers  from  these  sources,  spe- 
cial precautions  are  taken  in  wiring  mines,  and  special 
bulbs  are  used.  In  general  the  incandescent  lamps 
as  used  in  mining  are  made  of  stout  round  bulbs  of 
thick  glass  which  are  not  likely  to  crack  from  the  effects 
of  water  dripping  upon  them  while  heated.  As  a 
further  protection  it  is  customary  to  enclose  the  bulbs 
in  wire  cages.  It  is  also  customary  to  use  low-current 
lamps  with  a  rather  high  voltage,  although  this  must 
be  limited,  as  excessive  voltage  may  in  itself  become 
a  source  of  danger. 


[270] 


xm 

THE  AGE  OF  STEEL 

THE  iron  industry  has  of  late  years  become 
more  and  more  merged  into  the  steel  industry, 
as  steel  has  been  gradually  replacing  the  parent 
metal  in  nearly  every  field  of  its  former  usefulness. 
Steel  is  so  much  superior  to  iron  for  almost  every  pur- 
pose and  the  process  of  making  it  has  been  so  sim- 
plified by  Bessemer's  discovery  that  it  may  justly  be 
said  that  civilization  has  emerged  from  the  Iron  Age, 
and  entered  the  Age  of  Steel.  While  iron  is  mined 
more  extensively  now  than  at  any  time  in  the  history 
of  the  world,  the  ultimate  object  of  most  of  this  mining 
is  to  produce  material  for  manufacturing  steel.  We 
still  speak  of  boiler  iron,  railroad  iron,  iron  ships, 
etc.,  but  these  names  are  reminiscent,  for  in  the  con- 
struction of  modern  boilers  and  modern  ships,  steel 
is  used  exclusively.  In  the  past  decade  it  is  probable 
that  no  railroad  rails  even  for  the  smallest  and  cheapest 
of  tracks  have  been  made  of  anything  but  steel. 

The  last  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  has  been  one 
of  triumph  of  steel  manufacture  and  production  in 
America,  and  at  the  present  time  the  United  States 
stands  head  and  shoulders  above  any  other  nation 
in  this  industry.  In  the  middle  of  the  century  both 

[271] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

Germany  and  England  were  greater  producers  than 
America;  but  by  the  close  of  the  century  the  annual 
output  in  the  United  States  was  above  fifteen  million 
tons  as  against  England's  ten  and  Germany's  seven; 
and  since  1900  this  lead  has  been  greatly  increased. 
The  steel  industry  has  become  so  great,  in  fact,  that 
it  is  "a  sort  of  barometer  of  trade  and  national  progress." 
The  great  advances  in  the  quantity  of  steel  pro- 
duced have  been  made  possible  by  corresponding  ad- 
vances in  methods  of  winning  the  iron  ore  from  the  earth. 
Mining  machinery  has  been  revolutionized  at  least 
twice  during  the  last  half  century,  first  by  improved 
machines  driven  by  steam,  and  again  by  electricity 
and  compressed  air.  Ore  is  still  mined  to  a  limited 
extent  by  men  with  picks  and  shovels,  but  these  im- 
plements now  play  so  insignificant  a  part  in  the  process 
that  they  cannot  be  considered  as  important  factors. 
Steam  shovels,  automatic  loaders  and  unloaders,  dyna- 
mite and  blasting  powder,  have  taken  the  place  of 
brawn  and  muscle,  which  is  now  mostly  expended  in 
directing  and  guiding  mining  machinery  rather  than 
in  actually  handling  the  ore. 

THE   LAKE   SUPERIOR   MINES 

At  the  present  time  the  greatest  iron-ore  fields  lie 
in  the  Lake  Superior  region,  and  it  is  in  this  region 
that  the  greatest  progress  in  mining  methods  has  been 
made  in  recent  years.  There  are,  of  course,  extensive 
mines  in  other  sections  of  the  United  States,  but  at 
least  three-quarters  of  all  the  iron  produced  in  America 

[272] 


THE  AGE  OF  STEEL 

comes  from  the  Lake  Superior  mines,  and  the  systems 
of  mining  pursued  there  may  be  considered  as  repre- 
sentative of  the  most  advanced  modern  methods. 

Where  the  iron  ore  of  these  mines  is  found  near  the 
surface  of  the  earth,  the  great  system  of  " open-pit" 
mining  is  practised;  but  as  only  a  relatively  small 
portion  of  the  ore  is  so  situated,  modifications  of  older 
mining  methods  are  still  employed.  Of  these  the 
three  most  important  are  known  as  "  overhead  scoop- 
ing," "caving,"  and  "milling." 

In  the  overhead  method  a  shaft  is  sunk  into  the 
earth  to  a  depth  of  several  hundred  feet,  according  to 
the  depth  of  the  ore,  this  shaft  being  lined  with  timbers 
for  support.  From  this  shaft  horizontal  tunnels  are 
made  in  all  directions  in  the  ore  deposits,  and  through 
these  tunnels  the  ore  is  conveyed  to  the  shaft  and  thence 
to  the  surface.  As  the  ore  is  removed  and  the  earth 
thus  honeycombed  in  all  directions,  supports  of  various 
kinds  must  be  made  to  prevent  caving.  For  this  pur- 
pose columns  of  the  ore  itself  may  be  left,  or  supports 
of  masonry  or  wood  or  steel  may  be  introduced. 
Under  certain  circumstances,  however,  these  supports 
are  not  employed,  the  earth  being  allowed  gradually 
to  cave  in  at  the  surface  as  the  ore  is  removed,  this 
being  the  method  of  mining  known  as  "caving." 

Where  the  ore  deposit  occurs  in  a  favorable  hillside 
the  "milling"  system  is  frequently  employed.  In 
working  this  system  a  large  horizontal  tunnel,  twenty 
or  more  feet  in  diameter,  is  dug  into  the  hillside.  Per- 
pendicular shafts  are  then  sunk  from  the  top  of  the 
hill,  connected  with  openings  leading  directly  into 

VOL.  VI.— 18  [273] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

the  top  of  the  main  horizontal  shaft.  By  this  arrange- 
ment the  ore,  when  loosened  in  these  perpendicular 
shafts,  falls  directly  into  the  bins  placed  for  its  recep- 
tion about  the  openings,  or  into  the  rows  of  cars  in 
waiting  to  receive  it.  In  this  method  dynamite  and 
powder  take  the  place  of  hand  labor,  the  main  mass  of 
ore  being  dislodged  and  thrown  into  the  shaft  by 
blasting,  instead  of  by  hand  labor. 

But  all  these  methods  are  overshadowed  in  mag- 
nitude by  the  great  "open  pit"  systems,  where  the  ore 
is  taken  from  the  surface  and  handled  entirely  by  ma- 
chinery, the  only  part  played  by  the  miner's  pick  being 
that  of  assisting  in  loosing  certain  fragments  so  that 
they  may  be  more  easily  seized  by  the  machines. 
Indeed,  this  system  of  mining  partakes  of  the  nature 
of  quarrying  rather  than  that  of  mining  in  the  ordinary 
sense,  the  ore  being  scooped  from  the  surface  of  the 
ground.  One  naturally  thinks  of  a  mine  as  being 
subterranean;  but  in  the  great  open- pit  mines  in  the 
Lake  Superior  region,  which  are  the  largest  mines  in 
the  world,  all  the  mining  is  done  at  the  surface  of  the 
earth. 

It  should  not  be  understood,  however,  that  in  such 
mines  nature  has  left  the  red  iron  ore  exposed  at  the 
surface  in  any  great  quantities.  On  the  contrary,  it 
is  usually  covered  by  a  layer  of  earth  ranging  from  a 
yard  to  ten  or  more  yards  in  depth,  and  this,  of  course, 
must  be  removed  before  open-pit  methods  can  be  prac- 
tised. Prospecting  for  such  deposits  is  therefore  just 
as  necessary  as  in  cases  where  the  deposit  is  situated 
much  deeper  in  the  earth;  and  the  business  of  pros- 


THE  AGE  OF  STEEL 

pecting  by  "test  pit"  men  is  as  important  an  industry 
as  ever. 

When  an  available  open-pit  mine  of  sufficient  extent 
has  been  located  the  gigantic  task  of  "stripping"  or  re- 
moving the  overlying  layer  of  earth  begins.  Immense 
areas  of  land  have  been  thus  stripped  in  some  of  these 
undertakings,  no  difficulties  being  considered  insur- 
mountable. If  a  small  river-bed  lies  in  an  unfavorable 
position,  the  course  of  the  river  is  changed  regardless 
of  expense.  Farms  and  farm  houses  are  purchased 
and  literally  carted  away,  neither  land  nor  houses 
representing  values  worth  considering  when  compared 
with  the  stratum  of  ore  beneath  them.  The  single 
contract  for  stripping  one  area  in  the  Lake  Superior 
region  was  let  for  a  sum  amounting  to  half  a  million 
dollars. 

As  soon  as  a  sufficiently  large  area  has  been  stripped, 
railroads  are  constructed  into  the  pit,  steam  shovels 
are  run  into  place,  and  the  actual  work  of  mining 
begins.  Five  shovels  full  make  a  car-load,  and  under 
ordinary  circumstances  the  five  loads  may  be  delivered 
in  as  many  minutes. 

The  number  of  men  required  to  manipulate  one  of 
these  steam  shovels  is  from  ten  to  twelve.  The  ore 
itself  is  frequently  so  hard  that  the  scoop  of  the  shovel 
could  not  penetrate  it  until  loosened  and  broken  up, 
and  it  is  the  business  of  the  gang  of  workmen  to  do 
this  and  slide  the  ore  down  within  easy  working  dis- 
tance of  the  shovel.  This  is  mostly  done  by  blasting 
with  dynamite  and  powder,  little  of  the  actual  labor 
being  performed  by  hand.  In  blasting,  a  deep  hole 

[275] 


THE   CONQUEST   OF  NATURE 

is  first  drilled  into  the  ore  near  the  top  of  the  embank- 
ment, and  into  this  hole  a  stick  of  dynamite  is  dropped 
and  exploded.  This  enlarges  the  cavity  sufficiently 
so  that  a  quantity  of  blasting  powder  may  be  poured 
in  and  set  off,  tumbling  the  ore  down  within  reach  of  the 
shovel. 

This  ore  is  frequently  almost  as  hard  as  iron  itself, 
many  of  the  pieces  thus  dislodged  being  too  large  for 
convenient  handling,  either  by  the  steam  shovel  or 
in  the  chutes  at  the  wharves,  and  must  be  still  further 
broken  up.  This  is  sometimes  done  by  the  men  with 
picks;  but  in  mining  on  a  large  scale,  where  the  deposit 
is  all  of  a  very  hard  nature,  crushing  machines  are 
used. 

In  this  manner  the  steam  shovel  is  kept  constantly 
supplied  with  ore  for  the  waiting  train  of  cars.  These 
trains  are  arranged  on  a  track  running  parallel  with  the 
track  from  which  the  steam  shovel  operates,  and  at  such 
a  distance  that  the  centre  of  the  car  will  be  directly 
under  the  opening  in  the  bottom  of  the  shovel  when 
it  is  swung  around  on  its  crane.  The  engineer  in 
charge  of  the  locomotive  drawing  the  train  stops  it 
in  a  position  so  that  the  first  shovelful  of  ore  will  be 
dumped  into  the  forward  end  of  the  first  car.  As  each 
successive  shovelful  is  deposited,  representing  about 
one-fifth  of  a  car-load,  the  train  is  pulled  or  backed 
along  the  track  about  one-fifth  of  a  car-length.  In 
this  manner  it  is  only  necessary  for  the  steam  shovel 
to  be  swung  into  the  same  position  and  dumped  at 
the  same  point  each  time  to  insure  the  proper  loading 
of  the  cars. 

[276] 


THE  AGE  OF  STEEL 

From  what  has  been  said  it  will  be  seen  that  in  this 
open-pit  mining  the  steam  engine  and  steam  locomo- 
tive still  play  a  conspicuous  part;  but  in  the  other  forms 
of  iron  mining,  electric  or  compressed-air  motors 
are  used,  as  much  better  adapted  for  underground 
work.  In  the  Lake  Superior  region,  where  everything 
is  done  by  the  most  modern  methods,  the  use  of  horses 
and  mules  for  hauling  purposes  is  practically  unknown. 

The  cars  used  for  hauling  the  ore  are  of  peculiar 
construction.  The  latest  types  are  built  of  steel  with 
a  carrying  capacity  of  fifty  tons  of  ore,  and  are  so 
made  that  by  simply  knocking  loose  a  few  pins  their 
bottoms  open  and  discharge  the  ore  into  the  receiving 
bins  on  the  wharves,  or  into  the  chutes  leading  to  the 
waiting  boats. 

A  perennial  problem  in  iron  mining,  whether  sur- 
face or  subterranean,  just  as  in  all  other  kinds  of 
mining,  is  the  removal  of  accumulations  of  water,  some 
of  these  mines  filling  at  the  rate  of  from  twenty-five 
to  thirty  thousand  gallons  an  hour.  But  an  equally 
important  problem  is  that  of  removing  moisture  from 
the  ore  itself.  Obviously  every  additional  pound  of 
moisture  adds  to  the  cost  and  difficulty  in  handling,  and 
inasmuch  as  this  ore  must  be  transported  a  distance  of 
something  like  a  thousand  miles,  necessitating  three 
or  four  handlings  in  the  process,  the  aggregate  amount 
of  wasted  energy  caused  by  each  ton  of  water  is  enor- 
mous. It  has  been  found  that  at  least  ten  per  cent  of 
the  moisture  may  be  dried  out  of  the  ore  before  shipping, 
and  that  the  ore  does  not  tend  to  absorb  moisture  again 
under  ordinary  circumstances  once  it  has  been  dried. 

[277] 


THE   CONQUEST   OF  NATURE 

This  is  of  course  of  great  advantage  where  it  is  found 
necessary  to  store  it  in  heaps  some  little  time  before 
shipping. 


FROM   MINE   TO   FURNACE 

In  most  industries,  particularly  where  the  percentage 
of  waste  products  is  large,  it  is  found  advantageous 
and  economical  to  establish  factories  as  near  the  source 
of  supply  of  raw  material  as  possible.  But  the  iron 
ore  mined  in  the  Lake  Superior  region  is  transported 
something  like  a  thousand  miles  before  being  delivered 
to  the  factories.  The  question  naturally  arises,  Why 
is  not  the  ore  turned  into  pig  iron  or  steel  ingots  at 
once  as  near  the  mouths  of  the  mines  as  possible,  and 
sent  in  this  condensed  form  to  the  factories,  thus  saving 
more  than  half  the  cost  of  transportation  ?  The  answer 
is  simple:  the  coal  mines  and  steel  factories  lie  in  the 
East,  one  established  by  nature,  the  other  by  man  many 
years  before  iron  ore  was  found  in  the  Lake  region. 
And  it  is  found  just  as  cheap  and  easy  to  transport  the 
iron  to  the  coal  regions  as  it  would  be  to  transport 
the  coal  to  the  ore  regions.  Furthermore,  the  fac- 
tories in  the  neighborhood  of  Pittsburg  and  along  the 
southern  shores  of  Lake  Erie  and  Lake  Ontario  are 
near  the  great  centres  of  civilization,  and  are  accessible 
the  year  round;  while  the  Lake  Superior  region  is 
"frozen  in"  for  at  least  three  months  in  the  year. 

And  so,  in  place  of  a  great  traffic  of  coal  westward 
to  the  Lake  Superior  regions,  there  is  a  great  east- 
ward traffic  of  ore,  by  rail  and  water,  passing  from  the 


THE  AGE  OF  STEEL 

mines  to  furnaces  and  factories  a  thousand  miles  away. 
Indeed,  this  is  probably  the  greatest  and  most  remark- 
able system  of  transportation  in  the  world.  Specially 
constructed  trains,  wharves,  boats,  and  machinery, 
used  for  this  single  purpose,  and  not  duplicated  either 
in  design  or  extent,  make  this  stupendous  enterprise 
a  unique,  as  well  as  a  purely  American  one. 

The  transportation  begins  with  the  train  loads  of  ore 
that  run  from  the  mines  to  the  lake  shore  and  out  upon 
the  wharves  built  to  receive  them.  These  wharves 
are  enormous  structures,  sometimes  half  a  mile  in 
length,  built  up  to  about  the  height  of  the  masts  of  ore 
boats.  On  the  sides  and  in  the  centres  of  these  tow- 
ering structures  are  huge  bins  for  holding  the  ore,  these 
bins  communicating  directly  with  the  holds  of  the  ore 
steamers  tied  up  alongside.  Four  tracks  are  frequently 
laid  on  the  top  of  the  wharves,  and  are  so  arranged 
that  trains  four  abreast  can  dump  the  ore  into  the  bins, 
or  waiting  ships,  at  the  same  time.  If  the  bins  are 
empty  and  boats  waiting  to  receive  a  cargo,  the  ore 
is  discharged  by  long  chutes  into  the  holds  from  the 
cars.  Otherwise  the  bins  are  filled,  the  trains  return- 
ing to  the  mines  as  quickly  as  possible  for  fresh  loads. 

The  boats  for  receiving  this  cargo  are  of  special 
design,  many  of  them  differing  very  greatly  in  appear- 
ance from  ordinary  ocean  liners  of  corresponding  size. 
This  is  particularly  true  of  the  "whale-backs"  which 
have  little  in  common  in  appearance  with  ordinary 
steamers  except  in  the  matter  of  funnels;  and  even  these 
are  misplaced  sternwards  to  a  distance  quite  out  of 
drawing  with  the  length  of  the  hull.  Their  shape  is 

[279] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

that  of  the  ordinary  type  of  submarine  boat — that  is, 
cigar- shaped — this  effect  being  obtained  by  a  curved 
deck  completely  covering  the  place  ordinarily  occu- 
pied by  a  flat  deck.  A  wheel-house,  like  a  battle-ship's 
conning- tower,  is  placed  well  forward,  supported  on 
steel  beams  some  distance  above  the  curved  deck  for 
observation  purposes;  and  engines,  boilers,  and  coal 
bunkers  occupy  a  small  space  in  the  stern.  The  boat, 
therefore,  is  mostly  hold. 

But  the  " whale-backs"  form  only  a  small  portion 
of  the  ore-fleet.  The  ordinary  type  of  boat  conforms 
more  nearly  to  the  shape  of  ocean  boats,  except  that 
the  bridge,  wheel-house,  and  engines  are  located  as 
in  the  whale-backs.  The  bows  of  these  boats  are 
blunt,  the  desideratum  in  such  craft  being  hull-ca- 
pacity rather  than  speed.  For  sea- worthiness  they 
are  equal  to  any  ocean  boats,  as  the  battering  waves 
of  Lake  Superior  are  quite  as  powerful  and  even  more 
treacherous  than  those  of  the  Atlantic  or  Pacific.  Some 
of  these  boats  are  five  hundred  feet  long,  equal  to  all 
but  the  largest  ocean  vessels.  Their  coal- carrying 
capacity  is  relatively  small,  since  coaling  stations  are 
numerous  at  various  points  on  the  journey,  and  every 
available  inch  of  space  is  utilized  for  the  precious 
iron  ore. 

In  order  to  facilitate  loading,  the  decks  are  literally 
honey-combed  with  hatches,  some  boats  having  fif- 
teen or  sixteen  openings  extending  the  width  of  the 
deck.  By  this  arrangement  the  time  of  loading  is 
reduced  to  a  matter  of  a  few  hours,  as  a  dozen  chutes, 
each  discharging  several  tons  of  ore  per  minute,  soon 

[280] 


THE  AGE  OF  STEEL 

fill  the  yawning  compartments  with  the  necessary 
six,  eight,  or  nine  thousand  tons,  that  make  up  the 
cargo. 

Quite  recently  lake-navigators  have  learned,  what 
rivermen  have  long  known,  that  cheap  transportation 
may  be  effected  on  a  large  scale  by  barges  and  towing. 
Before  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  forty  years  ago, 
the  Mississippi  river  swarmed  with  great  cargo-car- 
rying steamers,  employing  armies  of  men  and  consuming 
enormous  quantities  of  fuel.  But  after  the  war  the 
experiment  was  tried  of  hauling  the  cargoes  on  barges 
towed  by  tug  boats,  and  this  proved  to  be  so  much 
cheaper  that  the  fleet  of  great  river  boats  soon  dis- 
appeared. In  somewhat  the  same  way  the  barge  has 
come  into  use  of  late  years  in  the  ore-traffic,  and  the 
great  ore-steamers  now  tow  behind  them  one  or  two 
barges  equal  in  carrying  capacity  to  themselves.  In 
this  way  three  ships'  cargoes  of  ore  are  transported  a 
thousand  miles  by  a  score  of  men,  a  dozen  on  the  steamer 
and  three  or  four  on  each  of  the  barges.  The  barges 
themselves  are  rigged  as  ships,  and  if  necessary  can 
shift  for  themselves  by  means  of  sails  attached  to  their 
stubby  masts.  But  these  are  used  only  on  special 
and  unusual  occasions,  as  in  case  of  accidental  part- 
ing of  the  hawsers  during  a  storm. 

The  problem  of  loading  the  ships  at  the  ore 
wharves  is  a  simple  one  as  compared  with  the  equally 
important  one  of  transferring  the  ore  from  the  hold 
to  trains  of  cars  in  waiting  at  the  eastern  end  of  the 
water  route.  For  four  handlings  of  the  ore  are  nec- 
essary before  it  is  finally  deposited  in  the  furnaces  in 


THE   CONQUEST   OF  NATURE 

the  east.  The  first  of  these  is  from  the  mine  to  cars; 
the  second  from  the  cars  to  the  boats;  the  third  from 
the  boats  to  cars;  and  the  fourth  from  the  cars  to  the 
blast  furnaces. 

For  many  years  about  the  only  hand  work  done  in 
any  of  these  processes  was  that  of  transferring  from 
the  boats  to  the  ore-trains,  and  even  here  "automatic 
unloaders"  are  now  rapidly  supplanting  the  tedious 
hand  method.  By  the  older  methods  a  travelling 
crane,  or  swinging  derrick,  dropped  a  bucket  into 
the  hold  of  the  ore-vessel,  where  workmen  shovelled 
it  full  of  the  red  ore.  It  was  then  lifted  out  by  machin- 
ery and  the  contents  dumped  into  cars  in  much  the 
same  manner  as  that  of  the  steam  shovel  in  the  mines. 
Recently,  however,  a  machine  has  been  perfected 
which  scoops  up  the  ore  from  the  ship's  hold  and  trans- 
fers it  to  the  cars  without  the  aid  of  shovellers.  The 
only  human  aid  given  this  gigantic  machine  is  to  guide 
it  by  means  of  controlling  levers — to  furnish  brains 
for  it,  in  short — the  "muscle"  being  furnished  by 
steam  power.  The  great  arm  of  this  automatic  un- 
loader,  resembling  the  sweep  of  the  old-fashioned  well 
in  principle,  moves  up  and  down,  burying  the  jaws  of 
the  shovel  into  the  ore  in  the  hold,  and  pulling  them 
out  again  filled  with  ore,  with  monotonous  regularity, 
quickly  emptying  the  vessel  under  the  guidance  of 
half  a  dozen  men,  and  performing  the  labor  of  hun- 
dreds. 

Thus  the  last  field  of  activity  for  the  laborer  and  his 
shovel,  in  the  iron- ore  industry,  has  been  usurped  by 
mechanical  devices.  From  the  time  the  ore  is  taken 

[282] 


THE  AGE  OF  STEEL 

from  the  mine  until  it  appears  as  molten  metal  from 
the  furnaces,  it  is  not  touched  except  by  mechanisms 
driven  by  steam,  compressed  air,  or  electricity.  And 
yet,  so  rapid  is  the  growth  of  the  iron  and  steel  industry 
that  there  is  almost  always  a  demand  for  more  workmen. 
For  this  reason,  and  perhaps  because  of  the  "  Ameri- 
can spirit"  among  workmen,  innovations  in  the  way 
of  labor-saving  machinery  are  not  resisted  among  the 
mine  laborers.  The  American  workman  seldom  re- 
sists or  attacks  machinery  on  the  ground  that  it  "throws 
him  out  of  a  job,"  as  does  his  English  cousin.  It 
would  be  unjust  to  attribute  this  attitude  to  superior 
acumen  on  the  part  of  the  American  workman,  and 
it  is  probably  a  difference  in  conditions  and  surround- 
ings that  accounts  for  the  diametrically  opposite  views 
held  by  laborers  on  the  two  sides  of  the  Atlantic. 
But  after  all,  results  must  speak  for  themselves,  and 
the  advantage  all  lies  in  favor  of  the  progressive  atti- 
tude of  the  western  laborer,  if  we  may  judge  by  the 
relative  social  status  and  financial  standing  of  Euro- 
pean and  American  workmen. 

THE  CONVERSION  OF  IRON  ORE  INTO  IRON  AND  STEEL 

Since  steel  is  a  compound  substance  composed  es- 
sentially of  two  elementary  substances  in  varying 
proportions,  it  appears  that  the  name  "steel,"  like 
wood,  refers  to  a  class  of  which  there  are  several  vari- 
eties. This,  of  course,  is  the  case,  but  for  the  moment 
we  may  consider  steel  as  a  single  substance  composed 
chiefly  of  iron  and  containing  a  certain  percentage  of 

[283] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

carbon.  In  this  respect  it  resembles  cast  iron,  steel 
having  a  smaller  amount  of  carbon.  Wrought  iron, 
on  the  other  hand,  contains  no  carbon  at  all,  or  at 
least  only  a  trace  of  it.  But  whatever  the  ultimate 
destiny  of  iron  ore — whether  it  is  to  become  aristo- 
cratic manganese  steel,  or  plebeian  cast  iron — it  must 
first  pass  through  certain  processes  before  being 
"converted." 

To  extract  the  pure  iron  from  the  iron  ore  it  is  nee- 
essary  to  heat  the  ore  in  a  furnace  containing  a  certain 
quantity  of  coal,  coke,  or  charcoal,  and  limestone. 
The  furnaces  used  in  this  process  are  known  as  blast- 
furnaces, and  in  these  about  one  ton  of  iron  is  extracted 
for  every  two  tons  of  Lake  Superior  ore,  one  and  a 
quarter  tons  of  coke,  and  half  a  ton  of  limestone  used. 
These  quantities  are  by  no  means  constant,  of  course, 
but  they  may  be  taken  as  representing  roughly  the 
relative  amounts  of  material  that  must  be  fed  into 
the  furnaces. 

Like  everything  else  in  the  world  of  iron  and  steel, 
these  blast-furnaces  have  undergone  revolutionary 
improvements  during  the  past  quarter  of  a  century. 
From  being  most  dangerous  and  destructive  struc- 
tures causing  frightful  loss  of  life  and  producing  only 
about  one  ton  of  iron  a  day  for  every  man  working 
about  them,  as  formerly,  they  have  now  become  rela- 
tively harmless  monsters,  capable  of  turning  out  six 
times  that  quantity  of  ore  for  each  man  employed. 

The  older  blast-furnace  was  a  huge,  chimney-like 
structure,  perhaps  a  hundred  feet  high,  into  which  the 
ore,  coal,  and  limestone  were  poured.  Most  of  the 

[284] 


THE  AGE  OF  STEEL 

work  about  these  furnaces  was  done  by  manual  labor, 
or  at  least  manual  labor  was  an  active  assistant  to  the 
machinery  used  in  manipulating  the  furnaces.  The 
top  of  the  furnace  was  closed  in  by  a  great  movable 
lid,  or  "bell,"  and  the  material  for  charging  it  was 
hauled  up  the  sides  by  elevators  and  dumped  in  at 
the  top.  About  the  top  of  the  furnace  was  constructed 
a  staging  upon  which  the  workmen  stood,  an  elevator 
shaft  connecting  the  staging  with  the  ground.  The 
ore  and  other  materials  were  brought  to  the  foot  of 
the  shaft  on  cars  from  which  it  was  shovelled  into  pecu- 
liarly designed  wheelbarrows,  trundled  to  the  elevator, 
and  hauled  to  the  top. 

In  order  'to  dump  the  wheelbarrow  loads  into  the 
furnaces  it  was  necessary  to  raise  the  bell.  This  was 
always  dangerous,  and  frequently  resulted  in  the  suffo- 
cation or  injury  of  the  workmen  on  the  staging.  For 
when  the  bell  was  raised  there  was  an  escape  of  poi- 
sonous gases,  which  might  flare  out  in  a  sheet  of  flame, 
with  the  possibility  of  burning  or  suffocating  the  work- 
men. The  fumes  from  these  gases,  if  inhaled  in  small 
quantities,  might  simply  cause  coughing,  hiccoughing, 
or  dizziness;  but  when  inhaled  in  large  quantities 
they  struck  down  a  man  like  the  fumes  of  chloroform, 
suffocating  him  in  a  few  seconds  if  he  was  not  removed 
at  once  into  a  purer  atmosphere.  Indeed,  the  like- 
lihood of  this  was  so  great  that  at  many  of  these  fur- 
naces a  special  workman  was  detailed  to  take  the 
position  on  the  staging,  well  out  of  range  of  the  gas, 
his  sole  duty  being  to  rescue  any  of  the  men  who 
might  be  overcome,  and  hurry  them  as  quickly  as  pos- 

[285] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

sible  down  the  elevator  shaft  into  the  pure  atmosphere 
below.  It  was  not  an  uncommon  thing  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  these  older  furnaces  to  see  stretched  about  on 
the  ground  at  the  base  several  workmen  in  various  stages 
of  suffocation.  Fortunately,  by  use  of  precautionary 
measures,  fatal  accidents  were  rather  unusual,  the  men 
being  overcome  only  temporarily,  and  usually  recov- 
ering quickly  and  returning  to  work. 

But  the  poisonous  gas  coming  from  the  top  of  the 
furnace  was  not  the  only,  nor  the  worst,  danger  con- 
stantly menacing  the  men  on  the  staging.  Their 
greatest  dread  was  the  possibility  of  explosions  occurring 
in  the  furnace,  which  might  hurl  the  bell  into  the  air 
and  deluge  the  upper  structure  with  molten  metal. 
Against  this  possibility  there  was  no  safeguard  in  the 
older  furnaces,  explosions  occurring  without  warning 
and  frequently  with  terrible  effects.  But  fortunately 
these  older  types  of  furnaces  are  being  rapidly  replaced 
by  the  newer  forms  in  which  the  danger  to  life,  at  least 
from  gas  and  explosions,  is  minimized.  And  even  in 
the  older  furnaces,  improvements  in  the  structure  of 
the  bell  and  in  methods  of  rilling  have  greatly  lessened 
the  dangers. 

In  the  modern  type  of  blast-furnace  the  work  at  the 
top  formerly  performed  by  men  on  the  staging  is  ac- 
complished entirely  by  machinery.  The  general  appear- 
ance of  these  furnaces  is  that  of  huge  iron  pipes  or 
kettles  mounted  on  several  iron  legs.  The  outer  struc- 
ture, or  shaft,  is  constructed  of  plate  iron,  but  this 
is  lined  with  fire  brick  of  considerable  thickness,  and 
may  have  a  water  jacket  interposed  between  these 

[286] 


THE   AGE   OF  STEEL 

bricks  and  the  shaft.  About  this  large  kettle  are 
smaller  kettles  of  somewhat  similar  shape  having  pipes 
leading  from  their  tops  to  the  larger  structure.  These 
smaller  kettles  are  the  " stoves"  used  in  producing  the 
hot  air  for  the  furnace. 

The  working  capacity  of  some  of  these  furnaces  is 
in  the  neighborhood  of  a  thousand  tons  of  iron  a  day, 
although  the  average  furnace  produces  only  about  half 
that  quantity.  The  powerful  machinery  used  for 
charging  these  monster  caldrons  hauls  the  ore  and 
other  charging  materials  to  the  top  and  dumps  it  in 
car-load  lots. 

In  the  older  methods  of  manufacturing  steel,  the 
contents  of  the  blast-furnaces  were  first  drawn  off 
into  molds  and  allowed  to  cool  into  what  is  known  as 
pig-iron.  It  was  then  necessary  to  re-heat  this  iron 
and  treat  it  by  the  various  methods  for  producing 
the  kind  of  steel  desired.  By  the  newer  methods,  how- 
ever, time  and  money  are  saved  by  converting  the 
liquid  iron  from  the  blast-furnace  directly  into  steel 
without  going  through  the  transitional  stage  of  cooling 
it  into  pigs.  Pigs  of  iron  are  still  made  in  enormous 
quantities,  to  be  sure,  but  mostly  for  shipment  to  dis- 
tant places  or  for  stores  as  stock  material.  For  statis- 
tical purposes,  however,  the  entire  product  of  the  blast- 
furnace, whether  liquid  or  solid,  is  known  as  "pig  iron." 

The  older  method  of  removing  the  iron  from  the 
blast  furnaces  was  by  tapping  at  the  opening  near 
the  bottom,  the  stream  of  liquid  iron  being  allowed 
to  flow  into  a  connected  series  of  sand  molds,  each 
mold  being  about  three  feet  long  by  three  or  four  inches 

[287] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

wide.  The  bottom  of  these  molds  was  flat  but  as  the 
metal  cooled  in  them  the  upper  surface  became  round 
in  shape,  assuming  a  fanciful  resemblance  to  a  pig's 
back.  In  this  molding  a  great  amount  of  time  was 
wasted  in  the  slow  process  of  cooling,  and  a  large  ex- 
penditure of  energy  wasted  in  this  handling  and  re- 
handling  of  the  metal. 

In  modern  smelting  works,  however,  pigs  are  no 
longer  cast  in  sand  molds,  the  molten  metal  from  the 
furnace  being  discharged  directly  into  iron  molds 
attached  to  an  endless  chain.  These  molds  are  long, 
narrow,  and  shallow,  having  the  general  shape  of 
sand  molds.  Each  mold  as  it  passes  beneath  the  open- 
ing in  the  furnace  remains  just  long  enough  to  receive 
the  requisite  amount  of  metal  to  fill  it,  and  then  moves 
on  to  a  point  where  it  is  either  sprayed  with  water, 
or  cooled  by  actually  passing  through  a  tank  of  water, 
emerging  from  this  bath  with  the  metal  sufficiently 
solidified  so  that  it  may  be  dropped  into  a  waiting  car 
at  the  turning  point  of  the  endless  chain.  In  this 
manner  the  charge  from  the  blast-furnace  may  be 
drawn,  cooled,  and  converted  into  pigs,  loaded  into 
cars,  and  hauled  away  without  extra  handlings  or 
loss  of  time,  the  whole  process  occupying  practically 
no  more  time  than  the  initial  step  of  tapping  by  the 
older  method. 

Where  the  contents  of  the  blast-furnace  are  to  be 
converted  into  steel  at  once,  the  molten  metal  is  run 
off  into  movable  tanks  which  carry  it  directly  to  the 
steel  furnaces.  These  tanks,  holding  perhaps  twenty 
tons  of  metal,  are  made  of  thick  iron  lined  with  fire 

[288] 


THE   AGE   OF   STEEL 

brick,  and  arranged  on  low,  flat  cars  designed  specially 
for  the  purpose.  These  tanks  are  run  under  the  spout 
of  the  furnace,  filled  with  molten  metal,  and  drawn 
to  the  steel  works,  possibly  five  miles  away.  As  a  rule, 
the  distance  is  much  less,  but  as  far  as  the  condition 
of  the  metal  is  concerned  distance  seems  to  make 
little  difference,  as  even  at  the  extreme  distance  there 
is  no  apparent  cooling  of  the  seething  mass.  The 
intense  heat  given  off  by  these  trains  necessitates 
specially  constructed  cars,  tracks,  bridges,  and  cross- 
ings. 

The  destination  of  this  train  load  of  iron  pots  is 
the  "mixer" — a  great  200- ton  kettle  in  which  the  prod- 
ucts from  the  various  furnaces  are  mixed  and  rendered 
uniform  in  quality.  On  the  arrival  of  the  train  at  the 
mixer,  Titanic  machinery  seizes  the  twenty- ton  pots  and 
dumps  their  contents  bodily  into  the  glowing  pool  in  the 
great  crucible.  Like  the  filling  process,  this  operation 
occupies  only  a  few  minutes. 

From  the  mixer  the  metal  is  poured  out  into  ladles 
and  transferred  immediately  to  the  "converter" — 
the  important  development  of  Sir  Henry  Bessemer's 
discovery  that  has  made  possible  the  modern  steel 
industry.  This  converter  resembles  in  shape  some 
of  the  old  mortars  used  in  the  American  Civil  War — 
barrel-shaped  structures  suspended  vertically  by  trun- 
nions at  the  middle  and  having  an  opening  at  the  top. 
Into  this  opening  at  the  top  the  metal  from  the  mixer 
is  poured  and  when  the  converter  has  been  sufficiently 
charged  a  blast  of  cooled  air  is  blown  in  at  the  bottom 
through  the  molten  metal.  This  blast  emerges  at 

VOL.  VI.— 19  [  289  ] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

the  top  as  a  long  roaring  flame,  of  a  red  color  at  first 
but  gradually  changing  into  white,  and  then  faint 
blue.  These  changes  in  color  are  indicative  of  the 
changes  that  are  taking  place  in  the  metal,  and  the 
appearance  of  a  certain  shade  of  color  indicates  that 
the  conversion  into  steel  is  complete,  and  that  it  is 
time  for  shutting  off  the  blast  of  air.  Any  mistake  in 
this  matter — even  the  variation  of  thirty  seconds'  time 
—means  a  loss  of  thousands  of  dollars  in  the  quality 
of  steel  produced.  The  man  whose  duty  it  is  to  de- 
termine this  important  point,  therefore,  holds  an  ex- 
ceptionally delicate  and  responsible  position,  and 
receives  pay  accordingly. 

In  deciding  the  exact  moment  when  the  blast  shall 
be  turned  off,  this  workman  is  guided  entirely  by  the 
sense  of  sight.  Mounted  on  a  platform  commanding 
the  best  possible  view  of  the  mouth  of  the  converter 
and  wearing  green  glass  goggles  of  special  construc- 
tion, this  man  watches  the  change  of  color  in  the  flame 
until  a  certain  shade  is  reached — a  shade  that  to  the 
ordinary  untrained  observer  does  not  differ  in  appear- 
ance from  that  of  a  moment  before — when  he  gives 
the  signal  to  shut  off  the  blast.  When  this  signal  is 
given  the  contents  of  the  converter  is  no  longer 
common-place  cast  iron,  but  steel,  ready  to  be  molded 
into  rails,  boilers,  or  a  thousand  and  one  other 
useful  things. 

The  contents  of  the  converter  may  now  be  drawn 
off  as  liquid  steel  into  molds  of  any  desired  shape  and 
size,  and  when  cooled  will  be  ready  for  shipment. 
But  in  the  great  steel  factories  the  metal  is  not  ordi- 

[290] 


THE  AGE  OF  STEEL 

narily  allowed  to  cool  completely  before  being  sent 
to  the  rolling  mills,  being  drawn  off  into  molds  placed 
along  the  surface  of  small,  flat  cars.  These  molds 
are  rectangular,  ordinarily  four  or  five  feet  high  by 
less  than  two  feet  in  diameter.  The  metal  is  poured 
into  openings  in  the  top  of  each  mold,  and  allowed  to 
cool,  solidify,  and  to  contract  enough  to  permit 
the  outer  casings  of  the  molds  to  be  pulled  off  by 
machinery,  leaving  the  glowing  "ingots"  of  steel 
ready  for  molding  by  machinery  in  the  mills. 

The  process  just  described  is  the  one  by  which 
"Bessemer  steel"  is  made.  There  is  another  impor- 
tant process  in  use,  the  "open  hearth"  method,  which 
differs  considerably  from  this;  but  before  considering 
this  process  something  more  should  be  said  of  the  man 
whose  discoveries  made  possible  the  modern  steel 
industry. 

SIR  HENRY  BESSEMER 

In  the  history  of  the  progress  of  science  and  invention 
some  one  great  name  is  usually  pre-eminently  asso- 
ciated with  epoch-marking  advances,  although  there 
may  be  a  cluster  of  important  but  minor  associates. 
This  is  true  in  the  history  of  the  modern  steel  industry, 
and  the  central  name  here  is  that  of  Sir  Henry  Bessemer. 

Bessemer  was  born  at  Charlton,  England,  on  Jan. 
19,  1813.  Always  of  an  inventive  turn  of  mind,  his 
attention  was  first  directed  to  improving  the  methods 
then  in  use  for  the  manufacture  of  steel,  while  experi- 
menting with  the  manufacture  of  guns.  After  several 

[291] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

years  of  experimenting  in  his  little  iron  works  near 
London,  he  reached  some  definite  results  which  he 
announced  to  the  British  Association  in  1856.  In  this 
paper  he  described  a  process  of  converting  cast  iron 
into  steel  by  removing  the  excess  of  carbon  in  the  molten 
metal  by  a  blast  of  air  driven  through  it.  This  paper, 
in  short,  described  the  general  principles  still  employed 
in  the  Bessemer  process  of  manufacturing  steel.  And 
although  the  first  simple  process  described  by  Bessemer 
has  been  modified  and  supplemented  in  recent  years,  it 
was  in  this  paper  that  the  process  which  placed  steel 
upon  the  market  as  a  comparatively  cheap,  and  in- 
finitely superior,  substitute  for  ordinary  iron,  was  first 
disclosed. 

This  famous  paper  before  the  British  Association 
aroused  great  interest  among  the  English  ironmasters, 
and  applications  for  licenses  to  use  the  new  process 
were  made  at  once  by  several  firms.  But  the  success 
attained  by  these  firms  was  anything  but  satisfactory, 
although  Bessemer  himself  was  soon  able  to  manufac- 
ture an  entirely  satisfactory  product.  The  disappointed 
ironmasters,  therefore,  returned  to  the  earlier  proc- 
esses, the  inventor  himself  being  about  the  only 
practical  ironmaster  who  persisted  in  using  it. 

Recognizing  the  defects  in  his  process,  Bessemer 
set  about  overcoming  them,  and  at  the  end  of  two  years 
he  had  so  succeeded  in  perfecting  his  methods  that  his 
product,  equal  in  every  respect  to  that  of  the  older 
process,  could  be  manufactured  at  a  great  saving  of 
time  and  money.  But  the  ironmasters  were  now  skep- 
tical, and  refused  to  be  again  inveigled  into  applying 

[292] 


THE   AGE   OF   STEEL 

for  licenses.  Bessemer,  therefore,  with  the  aid  of 
friends,  erected  extensive  steel  works  of  his  own  at 
Sheffield,  and  began  manufacturing  steel  in  open  com- 
petition with  the  other  steel  operators.  The  price 
at  which  he  was  able  to  sell  his  product  and  realize  a 
profit  was  so  much  below  the  actual  cost  of  manufac- 
ture by  the  older  process,  that  there  was  soon  conster- 
nation in  the  ranks  of  his  rivals.  For  when  it  became 
known  that  the  firm  of  Henry  Bessemer  &  Co.  was 
selling  steel  at  a  price  something  like  one  hundred 
dollars  a  ton  less  than  the  ordinary  market  price, 
there  was  but  one  thing  left  for  the  ironmasters  to  do 
— surrender,  and  apply  for  licenses  to  be  allowed  to 
use  the  new  process. 

By  this  means,  and  through  the  profits  of  his  own 
establishment,  Bessemer  eventually  amassed  a  well- 
earned  fortune.  Moreover,  he  was  honored  in  due 
course  by  a  fellowship  in  the  Royal  Society,  and 
knighted  by  his  government. 

One  other  name  is  usually  associated  with  that  of 
Bessemer  in  the  practical  development  of  the  inven- 
tor's original  idea.  That  is  the  name  of  Robert  Mushet, 
and  the  "  Bessemer-Mushet "  process  is  still  in  use. 
Mushet's  improvement  over  Bessemer's  original  process 
was  that  of  adding  a  certain  quantity  of  spiegel- 
eisen,  or  iron  containing  manganese,  which,  for 
some  reason  not  well  understood,  simplifies  the 
process  of  steel  making.  Mushet,  therefore,  must 
be  considered  as  the  discoverer  of  a  useful,  though 
not  an  absolutely  essential,  accessory  to  the  Bessemer 
process. 

[293] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 


OPEN-HEARTH  METHOD 

In  the  open-hearth  method  the  metal  from  the  blast- 
furnaces is  not  sent  to  the  converter,  but  is  poured 
into  oven-like  structures  built  of  fire  brick,  and  in  these 
heated  to  a  terrific  temperature.  This  heat  has  the 
same  effect  upon  the  metal  as  the  blast  of  air  in 
the  Bessemer  converter,  and  this  open-hearth  process 
has  become  very  popular  for  manufacturing  certain 
kinds  of  steel.  While  in  the  method  of  application  this 
process  differs  greatly  from  that  of  Bessemer,  it  differs 
largely  in  the  fact  that  the  oxygen  necessary  to  burn  off 
the  carbonic  oxide,  silicon,  etc.,  is  made  to  play  over 
the  molten  mass  instead  of  passing  through  it. 

It  has  been  noted  that  the  old  type  of  blast-furnace 
gave  off  great  quantities  of  combustible  gases  which 
became  waste  products.  Even  gases  containing 
something  like  20  or  25  per  cent,  of  carbonic  acid  may 
be  highly  inflammable,  and  thus  an  enormous  quan- 
tity of  valuable  fuel  was  constantly  wasted.  In  some 
furnaces,  to  be  sure,  they  were  put  to  practical  use  for 
heating  the  blast,  but  as  the  quantities  given  off  were 
greatly  in  excess  of  the  amount  necessary  for  this  pur- 
pose, there  was  a  constant  loss  even  with  such  furnaces. 

Quite  recently  it  has  been  found  that  the  gases  can 
be  used  directly  in  gas  engines,  developing  three  or 
four  times  as  much  energy  in  this  way  as  if  they  were 
used  as  fuel  under  ordinary  steam  boilers.  These 
engines  are  now  used  for  operating  the  rolling-mill 
machinery,  and  the  machinery  of  shops  adjoining  the 

[294] 


THE  AGE  OF  STEEL 

furnaces,  which,  however,  must  not  be  situated  at 
any  very  great  distances  from  the  furnaces.  This  ac- 
counts partly  for  the  grouping  together  of  blast-fur- 
naces, rolling  mills,  and  machine  shops,  the  economical 
feature  of  this  arrangement  being  so  great  that  segre- 
gated establishments  find  it  next  to  impossible  to 
compete  in  the  open  market  with  such  "  communities " 
under  the  conditions  prevailing  in  the  steel  industry. 

ALLOY  STEELS 

The  introduction  of  Krupp  steel,  or  nickel,  for 
armor  plates,  a  few  years  ago,  called  attention  in  a 
popular  way  to  the  fact  that  for  certain  purposes  pure 
steel — that  is,  iron  plus  a  certain  quantity  of  carbon- 
was  not  as  useful  as  an  alloy  of  steel  with  some  other 
metal.  An  alloy  was  a  great  improvement  over  ordi- 
nary steel  or  iron  plates  used  in  warfare;  but  in  the 
more  peaceful  pursuits,  as  well  as  in  warfare,  certain 
alloyed  steels,  such  as  chrome  steel,  tungsten  steel, 
and  manganese  steel  play  a  very  important  part. 

Chrome  steel,  for  example,  in  the  form  of  projec- 
tiles, is  the  most  dreaded  enemy  of  nickel-steel  armor 
plates,  because  of  the  hardness  and  elasticity  of  armor- 
piercing  projectiles  made  of  it.  Such  a  steel  contains 
about  two  per  cent,  of  chromium  with  about  one  or 
two  per  cent,  of  carbon,  which  when  suddenly  cooled 
is  extremely  hard  and  tough.  This  kind  of  steel  and 
manganese  steel  are  the  best  guards  against  the 
burglar  and  safe-blower,  as  they  resist  even  very  highly 
tempered  and  hardened  drills.  As  this  steel  is  rela- 

[295] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

tively  cheap  to  manufacture,  it  is  frequently  used  in 
the  construction  of  safes  and  burglar-proof  gratings. 
For  this  purpose,  however,  it  is  sometimes  combined  in 
alternate  layers  with  soft  wrought  iron,  the  steel  resist- 
ing the  point  of  the  drill,  while  the  iron  furnishes  the 
necessary  elasticity  to  resist  the  blows  of  the  sledge. 
The  bars  used  in  modern  jails  and  prisons  are  often 
made  in  a  similar  manner  of  alternate  sheaths  of  iron 
and  chrome  steel.  Against  the  time-honored  "  hack- 
saw, "  the  bugbear  of  prison  officials  for  generations, 
such  bars  an  inch  and  a  quarter  in  diameter  offer  an 
almost  insurmountable  obstacle;  and  they  are  equally 
effective  against  a  heavy  sledge  hammer. 

At  least  one  case  is  recorded  in  which  the  use  of 
these  "composite"  bars  resulted  in  a  disastrous  fire 
in  a  prison.  A  small  blaze  having  started  in  the  base- 
ment of  this  prison,  attempts  to  reach  it  with  a  stream 
of  water  were  defeated  by  the  bars  of  the  steel  gratings 
at  the  windows,  which  would  not  admit  the  nozzle  of 
the  hose.  A  corps  of  men  armed  with  hack-saws, 
crow-bars,  and  sledges  attacked  this  grating,  which, 
if  made  of  ordinary  steel,  could  have  been  readily 
broken.  But  against  these  composite  bars  they  pro- 
duced no  appreciable  effect.  Meanwhile  the  fire 
gained  rapidly,  threatening  the  building  and  its  eight 
hundred  inmates,  and  was  only  checked  after  holes 
had  been  made  through  fire-proof  floors  and  ceilings 
for  admitting  the  nozzle. 

Manganese  steel  is  peculiar  in  becoming  ductile 
by  sudden  cooling,  and  brittle  on  cooling  slowly — 
precisely  the  reverse  of  ordinary  steel.  It  contains  about 

[296] 


THE  AGE  OF  STEEL 

1.50  per  cent,  of  carbon,  and  about  12  per  cent,  of 
manganese.  If  a  small  quantity  of  manganese,  that 
is,  i  or  2  per  cent.,  is  used  the  steel  is  very  brittle, 
and  becomes  more  so  as  greater  quantities  of  the  man- 
ganese are  used,  up  to  about  5  per  cent.  From  that 
point,  however,  it  becomes  more  ductile  as  the  quan- 
tity of  manganese  is  increased,  until  at  about  12  per 
cent,  it  reaches  an  ideal  state.  When  used  for  safes 
and  money  vaults  this  steel  has  one  great  advantage 
over  chrome  steel — it  is  not  affected  by  heat.  By  using 
a  blow-pipe  and  heating  a  limited  area  of  steel,  the 
burglar  is  able  to  "draw  the  temper"  of  ordinary  steel 
to  a  sufficient  depth  so  that  he  can  drill  a  hole  to  admit 
a  charge  of  dynamite;  but  manganese  steel  retains  its 
temper  under  the  blow-pipe  no  matter  how  long  it 
may  be  applied.  Against  attacks  of  the  sledge,  how- 
ever, it  is  probably  inferior  to  chrome  steel. 

Like  manganese  steel,  tungsten  steel  retains  its 
temper  even  when  heated  to  high  temperatures.  For 
this  reason  it  is  used  frequently  in  making  tools  for 
metal-lathe  work  where  thick  slices  of  iron  are  to  be 
cut,  as  even  at  red  heat  such  a  tool  continues  to  cut 
off  metal  chips  as  readily  as  when  kept  at  a  lower  tem- 
perature. This  steel  contains  from  6  to  10  per  cent, 
of  tungsten,  a  metallic  element  with  which  we  have 
previously  made  acquaintance  in  our  studies  of  the 
incandescent  lamp. 


[297] 


XIV 

SOME  RECENT  TRIUMPHS  OF  APPLIED  SCIENCE 

NOT  long  ago  a  little  company  of  men  met  in 
a  lecture  hall  of  Columbia  University  to  dis- 
cuss certain  questions  in  applied  science. 
It  was  a  small  gathering,  and  its  proceedings  were  so 
unspectacular  as  to  be  esteemed  worth  only  a  few  lines 
of  newspaper  space.  The  very  name — "Society  of 
Electro-Chemistry" — seemed  to  mark  it  as  having 
to  do  with  things  that  are  caviare  to  the  general.  The 
name  seems  to  smack  of  fumes  of  the  laboratory,  far 
removed  from  the  interests  of  the  man  in  the  street. 
Yet  Professor  Chandler  said  in  his  address  of  welcome 
to  the  members  of  the  society,  that  though  theirs  was 
the  very  youngest  of  scientific  organizations,  he  could 
confidently  predict  for  it  a  future  position  outranking 
that  of  all  its  sister  societies;  and  his  prediction  was 
based  on  the  belief  that  electro-chemistry  is  destined 
to  revolutionize  vast  and  important  departments  of 
modern  industry.  A  majority  of  the  heat-using  methods 
of  mechanics  will  owe  their  future  development  to 
the  new  science. 

In  a  word,  then,  despite  its  repellant  name,  the  so- 
ciety in  question  has  to  do  with  affairs  that  are  of  the 
utmost  importance  to  the  man  in  the  street.  Though 
its  members  may  sometimes  deal  in  occult  formulas 

[298] 


SOME   RECENT  TRIUMPHS 

and  abstruse  calculations,  yet  the  final  goal  of  their 
studies  has  to  do  not  with  abstractions  but  with  prac- 
ticalities,— with  the  saving  of  fuel,  the  smelting  of 
metals,  the  manufacture  of  commodities.  But  theory 
in  the  main  must  precede  practice — the  child  creeps 
before  it  walks.  "The  later  developments  of  indus- 
trial chemistry,"  says  Sir  William  Ramsey,  "owe  their 
success  entirely  to  the  growth  of  chemical  theory;  and 
it  is  obvious,"  he  adds  significantly,  "that  that  nation 
which  possesses  the  most  competent  chemists,  theoret- 
ical and  practical,  is  destined  to  succeed  in  the  com- 
petition with  other  nations  for  commercial  supremacy 
and  all  its  concomitant  advantages." 

Fortunately  this  interdependence  of  science  and  in- 
dustry is  not  a  mere  matter  of  prophecy — for  the  future 
tense  is  never  quite  so  satisfying  as  the  present.  Vastly 
important  changes  have  already  been  accomplished; 
old  industries  have  been  revolutionized,  and  new 
industries  created.  The  commercial  world  of  to-day 
owes  vast  debts  to  the  new  science.  Professor  Chand- 
ler outlined  the  character  of  one  or  two  of  these  in  the 
address  just  referred  to.  He  cited  in  some  detail,  for 
example,  the  difference  between  old  methods  and 
new  in  such  an  industry  as  the  manufacture  of  caustic 
soda.  He  painted  a  vivid  word  picture  of  the  dis- 
tressing conditions  under  which  soda  was  produced 
in  the  old-time  factories.  Salt  and  sulphuric  acid 
were  combined  to  produce  sulphate  of  soda,  which 
was  mixed  with  lime  and  coal  and  heated  in  a  rever- 
beratory  furnace.  Each  phase  of  the  process  was 
laborious.  The  workmen  operating  the  furnaces 

[299] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

sweltered  all  day  long  in  an  almost  unbearable  atmos- 
phere— stripped  to  the  waist,  dripping  with  perspiration, 
sometimes  overcome  with  heat.  Their  task  was  one 
of  the  most  trying  to  which  a  man  could  be  subjected. 

But  to-day,  in  such  establishments  as  the  soda  manu- 
factories at  Niagara  Falls,  all  this  is  changed.  A  salt 
solution  circulates  continuously  in  retorts  where  it  can 
be  acted  upon  by  electricity  supplied  from  dynamos 
operated  by  the  waters  of  the  Niagara  River.  The 
workmen,  comfortably  dressed  and  moving  about  in 
a  normal  temperature,  have  really  nothing  to  do  but 
refill  the  retorts  now  and  then  and  remove  the  finished 
product.  "It  almost  seems,"  Professor  Chandler 
added  with  a  smile,  "as  if  workmen  ought  to  be  glad 
to  pay  for  the  privilege  of  participating  in  so  pleasant 
an  occupation.  At  all  events  it  is,  in  all  seriousness, 
a  pleasure  for  the  visitor  who  knows  nothing  of  old 
practices  to  witness  this  triumph  of  a  modern  scientific 
method." 

Even  more  interesting,  said  Professor  Chandler,  are 
the  processes  employed  in  the  modern  method  of  pro- 
ducing the  metal  aluminum  by  the  electrolytic  process. 
The  process  is  based  on  the  discovery  made  by  Mr. 
Charles  M.  Hall  while  he  was  a  student  working  in 
a  college  laboratory,  that  the  mineral  cryolite  will 
absorb  alumina  to  the  extent  of  twenty-five  per  cent, 
of  its  bulk,  as  a  sponge  absorbs  water.  The  solution 
of  this  compound  is  then  acted  on  by  electricity,  and 
the  aluminum  is  deposited  as  pure  metal.  A  curiously 
interesting  practical  detail  of  the  process  is  based  on  the 
fact  that  pulverized  coke  remains  perfectly  dry  and 

[300] 


SOME   RECENT  TRIUMPHS 

rises  to  the  surface  when  stirred  into  a  crucible  contain- 
ing the  hot  alumina  solution :  moreover,  it  rises  to  the 
surface  and  remains  there  as  a  shield  to  protect  the 
workmen  against  the  heat  of  the  solution.  It  serves 
yet  another  purpose,  as  the  powdered  alumina  may  be 
sifted  upon  it  and  left  there  to  dry  before  being  stirred 
into  the  crucible.  A  most  ingenious  yet  simple  device 
tells  the  workman  when  any  particular  crucible  is  in 
need  of  replenishing.  A  small,  ordinary,  incandescent 
electric-light  bulb  is  placed  in  circuit  between  the  poles 
that  convey  the  electric  current  through  the  alumina 
solution.  So  long  as  the  crucible  contains  alumina, 
the  bulb  does  not  glow,  because  twenty  volts  of  elec- 
tricity are  required  to  make  it  incandescent,  whereas 
seven  volts  pass  through  the  solution.  But  so  soon  as 
the  alumina  becomes  exhausted,  resistance  to  the 
current  rises  in  the  cryolite  solution  and,  as  it  were, 
dams  back  the  electric  current  until  it  overflows  into 
the  wire  at  sufficient  pressure  to  start  the  signal  lamp. 
Then  it  is  necessary  merely  for  a  workman  to  stir 
into  the  solution  the  dry  alumina  resting  on  the  sur- 
face, along  with  the  coke  that  supports  it.  This,  of 
course,  reestablishes  the  electrolytic  process;  the  lamp 
goes  out  and  the  coke,  unaffected  by  its  bath,  rises  to 
the  surface  to  support  a  fresh  supply  of  alumina. 

Such  a  process  as  this,  contrasted  with  the  usual 
methods  of  smelting  metals  hi  fiercely  heated  furnaces, 
seems  altogether  wonderful.  Here  a  pure  metal  is  ex- 
tracted from  the  clayey  earth  of  which  it  formed  a  part, 
without  being  melted  or  subjected  to  any  of  the  familiar 
processes  of  the  picturesque,  but  costly,  laborious,  and 

[301] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

even  dangerous,  blast-furnaces.  There  is  no  glare 
and  roar  of  fires;  there  are  no  showers  of  sparks;  there 
is  no  gush  of  fiery  streams  of  molten  metal.  A  silent 
and  invisible  electric  current,  generated  by  the  fall 
of  distant  waters,  does  the  work  more  expeditiously, 
more  efficiently,  and  more  cheaply  than  it  could  be 
done  by  any  other  method  as  yet  discovered. 

Fully  to  appreciate  the  importance  of  the  method 
just  outlined,  we  must  reflect  that  aluminum  is  a  metal 
combining  in  some  measure  the  properties  of  silver, 
copper,  and  iron.  It  rivals  copper  as  a  conductor  of 
electricity;  like  silver  it  is  white  in  color  and  little 
subject  to  tarnishing;  like  iron  it  has  great  hardness 
and  tensile  strength.  True,  it  does  not  fully  compete 
with  the  more  familiar  metals  in  their  respective  fields; 
but  it  combines  many  valuable  qualities  in  fair  degree ; 
and  it  has  an  added  property  of  extreme  lightness  that 
is  all  its  own.  Add  to  this  the  fact  that  aluminum  is 
extremely  abundant  everywhere  in  nature — it  is  a 
constituent  of  nearly  all  soils  and  is  computed  to  form 
about  the  twelfth  part  of  the  entire  crust  of  the  earth 
—whereas  the  other  valuable  metals  are  relatively  rare, 
and  it  will  appear  that  aluminum  must  be  destined 
to  play  an  important  part  in  the  mechanics  of  the 
future.  There  is  every  indication  that  the  iron  beds 
will  begin  to  give  out  at  no  immeasurably  distant  day; 
but  the  supply  of  aluminum  is  absolutely  inexhaustible. 
Until  now  there  has  been  no  means  known  of  extract- 
ing it  cheaply  from  the  clay  of  which  it  forms  so  im- 
portant a  constituent.  But  at  last  electro-chemistry 
has  solved  the  problem;  and  aluminum  is  sure  to  take 

[302] 


SOME   RECENT  TRIUMPHS 

an  important  place  among  the  industrial  metals,  even 
should  it  fall  short  of  the  preeminent  position  as 
"the  metal  of  the  future"  that  was  once  prematurely 
predicted  for  it. 

NITROGEN   FROM   THE   AIR 

There  is  a  curious  suggestiveness  about  this  finding 
of  aluminum  at  our  very  door,  so  to  speak,  some  scores 
of  centuries  after  the  relatively  rare  and  inaccessible 
metals  had  been  known  and  utilized  by  man.  But  there 
is  another  yet  more  striking  instance  of  an  abundant 
element  which  man  needed,  but  knew  not  how  to  obtain 
until  the  science  of  our  own  day  solved  the  problem  of 
making  it  available.  This  is  the  case  of  the  nitrogen  of 
the  air.  As  every  one  knows,  this  gas  forms  more 
than  three-fourths  of  the  bulk  of  the  atmosphere. 
But,  unlike  the  other  chief  constituent,  oxygen,  it  is 
not  directly  available  for  the  use  of  plants  and  animals. 
Yet  nitrogen  is  an  absolutely  essential  constituent  of 
the  tissues  of  every  living  organism,  vegetable  and 
animal.  Any  living  thing  from  which  it  is  withheld 
must  die  of  starvation,  though  every  other  constituent 
of  food  be  supplied  without  stint;  and  the  fact  that 
the  starving  organism  is  bathed  perpetually  in  an  in- 
exhaustible sea  of  atmosphere  chiefly  composed  of 
nitrogen  would  not  abate  by  one  jot  the  certainty  of 
its  doom. 

To  be  made  available  as  food  for  plants  (and  thus 
indirectly  as  food  for  animals)  nitrogen  must  be  com- 
bined with  some  other  element,  to  form  a  soluble  salt. 

[303] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

But  unfortunately  the  atoms  of  nitrogen  are  very 
little  prone  to  enter  into  such  combinations ;  under  all 
ordinary  conditions  they  prefer  a  celibate  existence. 
In  every  thunder-storm,  however,  a  certain  quantity 
of  nitrogen  is,  through  the  agency  of  lightning,  made 
to  combine  with  the  hydrogen  of  dissociated  water- 
vapor,  to  form  ammonia;  and  this  ammonia,  washed 
to  the  earth  dissolved  in  rain  drops,  will  in  due  course 
combine  with  constituents  of  the  soil  and  become  avail- 
able as  plant  food.  Once  made  captive  in  this  manner, 
the  nitrogen  atom  may  pass  through  many  changes  and 
vicissitudes  before  it  is  again  freed  and  returned  to 
the  atmosphere.  It  may,  for  example,  pass  from  the 
tissues  of  a  plant  to  the  tissues  of  a  herbivorous  animal 
and  thence  to  help  make  up  the  substance  of  a  car- 
nivorous animal.  As  animal  excreta  or  as  residue  of 
decaying  flesh  it  may  return  to  the  soil,  to  form  the 
chief  constituent  of  a  guano  bed,  or  of  a  nitrate  bed, — 
in  which  latter  case  it  has  combined  with  lime  or  so- 
dium to  form  a  rocky  stratum"  of  the  earth's  crust  that 
may  not  be  disturbed  for  untold  ages. 

A  moment's  reflection  on  the  conditions  that  govern 
vegetable  and  animal  life  in  a  state  of  nature  will  make 
it  clear  that  a  soil  once  supplied  with  soluble  nitrates 
is  likely  to  be  replenished  almost  perpetually  through 
the  decay  of  vegetation.  But  it  is  equally  clear  that 
when  the  same  soil  is  tilled  by  man,  the  balance  of 
nature  is  likely  to  be  at  once  disturbed.  Every  pound  of 
grain  or  of  meat  shipped  to  a  distant  market  removes  a 
portion  of  nitrogen;  and  unless  the  deficit  is  artificially 
supplied,  the  soil  becomes  presently  impoverished. 

[304] 


SOME   RECENT  TRIUMPHS 

But  an  artificial  supply  of  nitrogen  is  not  easily  se- 
cured— though  something  like  twenty-five  million  tons 
of  pure  nitrogen  are  weighing  down  impartially  upon 
every  square  mile  of  the  earth's  surface.  In  the  midst 
of  this  tantalizing  sea  of  plenty,  the  farmer  has  been 
obliged  to  take  his  choice  between  seeing  his  land  be- 
come yearly  more  and  more  sterile  and  sending  to 
far-off  nitrate  beds  for  material  to  take  the  place  of 
that  removed  by  his  successive  crops.  The  most 
important  of  the  nitrate  beds  are  situated  in  Chili, 
and  have  been  in  operation  since  the  year  1830.  The 
draft  upon  these  beds  has  increased  enormously  in 
recent  years,  with  the  increasing  needs  of  the  world's 
population.  In  the  year  1870,  for  example,  only 
150,000  tons  of  nitrate  were  shipped  from  the  Chili 
beds;  but  in  1890  the  annual  output  had  grown  to 
800,000  tons;  and  it  now  exceeds  a  million  and  a  half. 
Conservative  estimates  predict  that  at  the  present 
rate  of  increased  output  the  entire  supply  will  be  ex- 
hausted in  less  than  twenty  years.  And  for  some  years 
back  scientists  and  economists  have  been  asking  them- 
selves, What  then? 

But  now  electro-chemistry  has  found  an  answer — 
even  while  the  alarmists  were  predicting  dire  disaster. 
Means  have  been  found  to  extract  the  nitrogen  from  the 
atmosphere,  in  a  form  available  as  plant  food,  and  at 
a  cost  that  enables  the  new  synthetic  product  to  com- 
pete in  the  market  with  the  Chili  nitrate.  So  all  dan- 
ger of  a  nitrogen  famine  is  now  at  an  end, — and  applied 
science  has  placed  to  its  credit  another  triumph,  second 
to  none,  perhaps,  among  all  its  conquests.  The  author 

VOL.  VI. — 20  [  305  ] 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

of  this  truly  remarkable  feat  is  a  Swedish  scientist, 
Christian  Birkeland  by  name,  Professor  of  Physics  in 
the  University  of  Christiania.  His  experiments  were 
begun  only  about  the  year  1903,  and  the  practical  ma- 
chinery for  commercializing  the  results — in  which  enter- 
prise Professor  Birkeland  has  had  the  co-operation  of  a 
practical  engineer,  Mr.  S.  Eyde — is  still  in  a  sense  in 
the  experimental  stage, — albeit  a  large  factory  was  put 
in  successful  operation  in  1905  at  Notodden,  Norway. 
Professor  Birkeland  has  thus  accomplished  what  many 
investigators  in  various  parts  of  the  world  have  been 
striving  after  for  years.  The  significance  of  his  ac- 
complishment consists  in  the  fact  that  he  has  demon- 
strated the  possibility  of  making  nitrogen  combine 
with  oxygen  in  large  quantities  and  at  a  relatively 
low  expense.  The  mere  fact  of  the  combination,  as 
a  laboratory  possibility,  had  been  demonstrated  in 
an  elder  generation  by  Cavendish,  and  more  recently 
by  such  workers  as  Sir  William  Crookes,  and  Lord 
Rayleigh  in  England  and  Professors  W.  Mutjmaan 
and  H.  Hofer  in  Germany.  Moreover,  the  experi- 
ments of  Messrs.  Bradley  and  Lovejoy,  conducted  on 
a  commercial  scale  at  Niagara  Falls,  had  seemed  to 
give  promise  of  a  complete  solution  of  the  problem; 
had,  indeed,  produced  a  nitrogen  compound  from  the 
air  in  commercial  quantity,  but  not,  unfortunately, 
at  a  cost  that  made  competition  with  the  Chili  nitrate 
possible.  Equally  unsuccessful  in  solving  this  impor- 
tant part  of  the  problem  had  been  the  experiments, 
conducted  on  a  large  scale,  of  Professors  Kowalski 
and  Moscicki,  at  Freiburg. 


SOME  RECENT  TRIUMPHS 

All  these  experimenters  had  adopted  the  same  agent 
as  the  means  of,  so  to  say,  forcing  the  transformation 
— namely,  electricity.  The  American  investigators 
employed  a  current  of  ten  thousand  volts;  the  German 
workers  carried  the  current  to  fifty  thousand  volts. 
The  flame  of  the  electric  arc  thus  produced  ignited 
the  nitrogen  with  which  it  came  in  contact  readily 
enough;  but  the  difficulty  was  that  it  came  in  contact 
with  so  little.  Despite  ingenious  arrangements  of 
multiple  poles,  the  burning-surface  of  the  multiple 
arc  remained  so  small  in  proportion  to  the  expenditure 
of  energy  that  the  cost  of  the  operation  far  exceeded 
the  commercial  value  of  the  product.  Such,  at  least, 
must  be  the  inference  from  the  fact  that  the  establish- 
ments in  question  did  not  attain  commercial  success. 

The  peculiarity  of  Professor  Birkeland's  method  is 
based  upon  the  curious  fact  that  when  the  electric  arc 
is  made  to  pass  through  a  magnetic  field,  its  line  of 
flame  spreads  out  into  a  large  disk — "like  a  flaming 
sun."  The  sheet  of  flame  thus  produced  represents  no 
greater  expenditure  of  energy  than  the  lightning  flash 
of  light  that  the  same  current  would  produce  outside 
the  magnetic  field,  but  it  obviously  adds  enormously 
to  the  arc-light  surface  that  comes  in  contact  with  the 
air,  and  hence  in  like  proportion  to  the  amount 
of  nitrogen  that  will  be  ignited.  In  point  of  fact, 
this  burning  of  nitrogen  takes  place  so  rapidly  in  lab- 
oratory experiments  as  to  vitiate  the  air  of  the  room 
very  quickly.  In  the  commercial  operation,  with 
powerful  electro-magnets  and  a  current  of  five  thousand 
volts,  operating,  of  course,  in  closed  chambers,  the  ratio 

[307] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

between  energy  expended  and  result  achieved  is  highly 
satisfactory  from  a  business  standpoint,  and  will  doubt- 
less become  still  more  so  as  the  apparatus  is  further 
perfected. 

To  the  casual  reader,  unaccustomed  to  chemical 
methods,  there  may  seem  a  puzzle  in  the  explanation 
just  outlined.  He  may  be  disposed  to  say,  "You  speak 
of  the  nitrogen  as  being  ignited  and  burned;  but  if 
it  is  burned  and  thus  consumed,  how  can  it  be  of  ser- 
vice?" Such  a  thought  is  natural  enough  to  one  who 
thinks  of  burning  as  applied  to  ordinary  fuel,  which 
seems  to  disappear  when  it  is  burned.  But,  of  course, 
even  the  tyro  in  chemistry  knows  that  the  fuel  has  not 
really  disappeared  except  in  a  very  crude  visual  sense; 
it  has  merely  changed  its  form.  In  the  main  its  solid 
substance  has  become  gaseous,  but  every  atom  of  it 
is  still  just  as  real,  if  not  quite  so  tangible,  as  before; 
and  the  chemist  could,  under  proper  conditions,  collect 
and  weigh  and  measure  the  transformed  gases,  and 
even  retransform  them  into  solids. 

In  the  case  of  the  atmospheric  nitrogen,  as  in  the  case 
of  ordinary  fuel,  a  burning  "consists  essentially  in 
the  union  of  nitrogen  atoms  with  atoms  of  oxygen." 
The  province  of  the  electric  current  is  to  produce  the 
high  temperature  at  which  alone  such  union  will  take 
place.  The  portion  of  nitrogen  that  has  been  thus 
"burned"  is  still  gaseous,  but  is  no  longer  in  the  state 
of  pure  nitrogen;  its  atoms  are  united  with  oxygen 
atoms  to  form  nitrous  oxide  gas.  This  gas,  mixed 
with  the  atmosphere  in  which  it  has  been  generated,  may 
now  be  passed  through  a  reservoir  of  water,  and  the 

[308] 


SOME  RECENT  TRIUMPHS 

new  gas  combines  with  a  portion  of  water  to  form 
nitric  acid,  each  molecule  of  which  is  a  compound  of 
one  atom  of  hydrogen,  one  atom  of  nitrogen,  and  three 
atoms  of  oxygen;  and  nitric  acid,  as  everyone  knows, 
is  a  very  active  substance,  as  marked  in  its  eager- 
ness to  unite  with  other  substances  as  pure  nitrogen 
is  in  its  aloofness. 

In  the  commercial  nitrogen-plant  at  Notodden,  the 
transformed  nitrogen  compound  is  brought  into  con- 
tact with  a  solution  of  milk  of  lime,  with  the  resulting 
formation  of  nitrate  of  lime  (calcium  nitrate),  a  substance 
identical  in  composition — except  that  it  is  of  greater 
purity — with  the  product  of  the  nitrate  beds  of  Chili. 
Stored  in  closed  cans  as  a  milky  fluid,  the  transformed 
atmosphere  is  now  ready  for  the  market.  A  certain 
amount  of  it  will  be  used  in  other  manufactories  for 
the  production  of  various  nitrogenous  chemicals;  but 
the  bulk  of  it  will  be  shipped  to  agricultural  districts 
to  be  spread  over  the  soil  as  fertilizer,  and  in  due  course 
to  be  absorbed  into  the  tissues  of  plants  to  form  the 
food  of  animals  and  man. 

ANOTHER  METHOD  OF  NITROGEN  FIXATION 

Just  at  the  time  when  the  Scandinavian  experimenters 
were  solving  the  problem  of  securing  nitrogen  from  the 
air,  other  experimenters  in  Italy,  operating  along  to- 
tally different  lines,  reached  the  same  important  result. 
The  process  employed  by  these  investigators  is  known 
as  the  Frank  and  Caro  process,  and  it  bids  fair  to  rival 
the  Norwegian  method  as  a  commercial  enterprise. 

[309] 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

The  process  is  described  as  follows  by  an  engineering 
correspondent  of  the  London  Times  in  the  Engineering 
Supplement  of  that  periodical  for  January  22,  1908: 

"This  process  is  based  upon  the  absorption  of  ni- 
trogen by  calcium  carbide,  when  this  gas,  in  the  pure 
form,  is  passed  over  the  carbide  heated  to  a  tempera- 
ture of  1,100  degrees  centigrade  in  retorts  of  special 
form  and  design.  The  calcium  carbide  required  as 
raw  material  for  the  cyanamide  manufacture  is  pro- 
duced in  the  usual  manner  by  heating  lime  and  coke 
to  a  temperature  of  2,500  degrees  centigrade  in  electric 
furnaces  of  the  resistance  type. 

"The  European  patent  rights  of  the  Frank  and  Caro 
process  have  been  purchased  by  the  Societa  Generale 
per  la  Cianamide  of  Rome,  and  the  various  subsidiary 
companies  promoting  the  manufacture  in  Italy,  France, 
Switzerland,  Norway,  and  elsewhere,  are  working 
under  arrangement  with  the  parent  company  as  re- 
gards sharing  of  profits. 

"The  first  large  installation  of  a  plant  for  carrying 
out  this  process  was  erected  at  Piano  d'Orta,  in  Cen- 
tral Italy,  and  was  put  into  operation  in  December, 
1905.  The  power  for  this  factory  is  developed  by 
an  independent  company,  and  is  obtained  by  taking 
water  from  the  river  Pescara  and  leading  it  to  a  point 
above  the  generating  station  at  Tramonti.  A  head  of 
90  feet,  equivalent  to  8,400  horse-power,  is  here  made 
available  for  the  industries  of  the  district.  The  power 
of  the  cyanamide  factory  is  transmitted  a  distance  of 
6J  miles  at  6,000  volts.  An  aluminum  and  chemical 
works  are  also  dependent  upon  the  same  power  station. 


SOME  RECENT  TRIUMPHS 

"The  Piano  d'Orta  works  contains  six  furnaces 
for  the  manufacture  of  cyanamide,  each  furnace  con- 
taining five  retorts  for  absorption  of  the  nitrogen  by 
the  carbide.  A  retort  is  capable  of  working  off  three 
charges  of  100  kilograms  (220  pounds)  of  carbide  per 
day  of  24  hours,  the  weight  of  the  charge  increasing 
to  125  kilograms  by  the  nitrogen  absorbed.  The  pres- 
ent carbide  consumption  of  the  Piano  d'Orta  factory 
is,  therefore,  at  the  rate  of  about  3,000  tons  per  annum, 
and  the  output  of  calcium  cyanamide  is  about  3,750 
tons  per  annum.  The  company  controlling  the  manu- 
facture at  Piano  d'Orta  is  named  the  Societa  Italiana 
per  Id  Fabbricazione  di  Prodotti  Azotati.  Extensions 
of  the  factory  at  this  place  to  a  capacity  of  10,000  tons 
per  annum  are  already  in  progress.  Another  company 
is  also  planning  the  erection  of  similar  works  at  Fiume 
and  at  Sebenico,  on  the  eastern  borders  of  the  Adriatic 
Sea.  The  additional  electric  power  required  will  be 
obtained  by  carrying  out  the  second  portion  of  the 
power  development  scheme  on  the  river  Pescara.  A 
fall  of  235  feet,  equivalent  to  22,000  horse-power,  is 
available  at  the  new  power  station,  which  is  being 
erected  at  Piano  d'Orta." 

After  stating  that  companies  to  operate  the  Frank 
and  Caro  process  have  been  organized  in  France,  in   V 
Switzerland,  in  Germany,  in  England,  and  in  America,  / 
— the  last-named  plant  being  at  Muscle  Shoals,  Ten- 
nessee River,  in  Northern  Alabama — the  writer  con- 
tinues: 

"These  facts  prove  that  the  manufacture  of  the  new 
nitrogenous  manure  will  soon  be  carried  on  in  all  the 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

more  important  countries  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic. 
If  the  financial  results  come  up  to  the  promoter's 
expectations  the  industry  in  five  years'  time  will  have 
become  one  of  considerable  magnitude. 

"A  modification  of  the  original  process  of  some  im- 
portance has  been  suggested  by  Polzeniusz.  This 
chemist  has  found  that  the  addition  of  fluorspar  (CaF2) 
to  the  carbide  reduces  the  temperature  required  for 
the  absorption  process  by  400  degrees  centigrade, 
while  it  also  produces  a  less  deliquescent  finished 
material. 

"As  regards  cost  of  manufacture,  no  very  reliable 
figures  are  yet  available,  but  the  companies  promoting 
the  new  manufacture  are  regulating  their  sale  prices 
by  those  of  the  two  rival  artificial  manures — ammonium 
sulphate  and  nitrate  of  soda.  Calcium  cyanamide 
is  now  being  sold  in  Germany  at  is.  to  is.  6d.  (25  to 
37  cents)  per  unit  of  combined  nitrogen  cheaper  than 
ammonium  sulphate,  and  33.  to  33.  6d.  (75  to  87  cents) 
per  unit  cheaper  than  nitrate  of  soda.  Whether  the 
manufacture  will  prove  remunerative  at  this  price  of 
about  £10  i os.  ($102.50)  per  ton  remains  to  be  seen. 
It  is  evident  that,  as  the  raw  material  of  the  cyanamide 
manufacture  (calcium  carbide)  costs  at  least  £8  ($40) 
per  ton  to  produce  under  the  most  favorable  conditions, 
the  margin  of  profit  will  not  be  large,  and  that  very 
efficient  management  will  be  required  to  earn  fair 
dividends  on  the  capital  sunk  in  the  new  industry. 

"It  must  be  noted,  however,  that  the  processes  are 
new  and  are  doubtless  capable  of  improvement  as 
experience  is  gained  in  working  them;  while,  on  the 


SOME   RECENT  TRIUMPHS 

other  hand,  the  competition  of  the  two  rival  artificial 
manures  is  likely  to  diminish  as  the  years  pass  on. 

"The  new  industry  is,  therefore,  likely  to  be  a  per- 
manent addition  to  the  list  of  electro-metallurgical 
processes.  But  for  the  present  its  success  can  only 
be  expected  in  centres  of  very  cheap  water-power,  as, 
for  instance,  in  those  localities  where  the  electric  horse- 
power year  can  be  generated  and  transmitted  to  the 
cyanamide  works  at  an  inclusive  cost  of  £2  ($10)  or 
under." 

ELECTRICAL  ENERGY  AND  HIGH  TEMPERATURES 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  active  instrumentality 
by  which  the  industrial  feats  thus  far  outlined  have 
been  accomplished,  is  that  weird  conveyer  of  energy 
known  as  electricity.  In  the  case  of  the  aluminum  man- 
ufacture, electricity  operated  according  to  the  strange 
process  of  electrolysis,  in  virtue  of  which  certain  atoms 
of  matter  move  to  one  pole  of  a  battery  while  other 
atoms  move  to  the  opposite  pole,  thus  effecting  a  sep- 
aration— the  result  being,  in  the  case  in  question,  the 
deposit  of  pure  aluminum  at  the  negative  pole.  In 
the  case  of  the  nitrogen  factories,  however,  the  manner 
of  operation  of  the  electric  current  is  quite  different. 
Electricity,  as  such,  is  not  really  concerned  in  the  mat- 
ter; the  efficiency  of  the  current  depends  solely  upon 
the  production  of  heat.  For  example,  any  other 
agency  that  brought  the  atmosphere  to  a  corresponding 
temperature  would  be  equally  efficacious  in  igniting 
the  nitrogen.  But  in  actual  practice,  for  this  particu- 

[313] 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

lar  purpose,  no  other  known  means  of  producing 
high  temperatures  could  at  all  compete  with  the 
electric  arc. 

There  are  numerous  other  operations  involving  the 
employment  of  high  temperatures  in  which  electricity 
is  equally  preeminent.  It  is  feasible  with  the  electric 
arc  to  attain  a  temperature  of  about  3,600  degrees 
centigrade — and  even  this  might  be  exceeded  were 
it  not  that  carbon,  of  which  the  electrodes  are  com- 
posed, volatilizes  at  that  temperature.  Meantime, 
the  highest  attainable  temperature  with  ordinary  fuels 
in  the  blast  furnace  is  only  about  1,800  degrees;  and 
the  oxy-hydrogen  flame  is  only  about  two  hundred 
degrees  higher.  A  mixture  of  oxygen  and  acetylene, 
however,  burns  at  a  temperature  almost  equaling  that 
of  the  electric  arc;  and  this  flame,  manipulated  with 
the  aid  of  a  blowpipe,  offers  a  useful  means  of  applying 
a  high  temperature  locally,  for  such  processes  as  the 
welding  of  metals.  The  very  highest  temperatures 
yet  reached  in  laboratory  or  workshop,  however,  are 
due  to  the  use  of  explosive  mixtures.  Thus  a  mixture 
of  the  metal  aluminum  granulated,  and  oxide  of  iron, 
when  ignited  by  a  fulminating  powder,  readjusts  its 
atoms  to  form  oxide  of  aluminum  and  pure  iron,  and 
does  this  with  such  fervor  that  a  temperature  of  about 
three  thousand  degrees  is  reached,  the  resulting  iron 
being  not  merely  melted  but  brought  almost  to  the 
boiling  point.  Practical  advantage  is  taken  of  this 
reaction  for  the  repair  of  broken  implements  of  iron 
or  steel,  the  making  of  continuous  rails  for  trolleys, 
and  the  like. 


SOME   RECENT  TRIUMPHS 

This  reaction  of  aluminum  and  iron  does  not,  to  be 
sure,  give  a  higher  temperature  than  the  electric  arc; 
but  this  culminating  feat  has  been  achieved,  in  labora- 
tory experiments,  through  the  explosion  of  cordite  in 
closed  steel  chambers;  the  experimenters  being  the 
Englishmen  Sir  Andrew  Noble  and  Sir  F.  Abel.  It 
is  difficult  to  estimate  accurately  the  degree  of  heat 
and  pressure  attained  in  these  experiments;  but  it 
is  believed  that  the  temperature  approximated  5,000 
degrees  centigrade,  while  the  pressure  represented 
the  almost  inconceivable  push  of  ninety  tons  to  the 
square  inch. 

It  may  be  of  interest  to  explain  that  cordite  is  a  form 
of  smokeless  powder  composed  of  gun  cotton,  nitro- 
glycerine, and  mineral  jelly.  No  doubt  the  extreme 
heat  produced  by  its  explosion  is  associated  with  the 
suddenness  of  the  reaction;  corresponding  to  the  effi- 
ciency as  a  propellant  that  has  led  to  the  adoption  of  this 
powder  for  use  in  the  small  arms  of  the  British  Army. 
No  commercial  use  has  yet  been  made  of  cordite  as 
a  mere  producer  of  heat;  but  there  is  an  interesting 
suggestion  of  possible  future  uses  in  the  fact  that  crys- 
tals of  diamond  have  been  found  in  the  residue  of  the 
explosion  chamber — microscopic  in  size,  to  be  sure,  but 
veritable  diamonds  in  miniature.  Sir  William  Crookes 
has  suggested  that,  could  the  reaction  be  prolonged 
sufficiently,  "there  is  little  doubt  that  the  artificial 
formation  of  diamonds  would  soon  pass  from  the  mi- 
croscopic stage  to  a  scale  more  likely  to  satisfy  the 
requirements  of  science,  if  not  those  of  personal 
adornment." 

[315] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 


OTHER   INDUSTRIAL  PROBLEMS  OF   TO-DAY   AND 
TO-MORROW 

In  attempting  to  suggest  the  importance  of  science 
in  its  relation  to  modern  industries,  I  have  thought  it 
better  to  cite  three  or  four  illustrative  cases  in  some 
detail  rather  than  to  attempt  a  comprehensive  summary 
of  the  almost  numberless  lines  of  commercial  activity 
that  have  a  similar  origin  and  dependence. 

To  attempt  a  full  list  of  these  would  be  virtually 
to  give  a  catalogue  of  mechanical  industries.  It  may 
be  well,  however,  to  point  out  a  few  familiar  instances, 
in  order  to  emphasize  the  economic  importance  of 
the  subject;  and  to  suggest  a  few  of  the  lines  along 
which  present-day  investigators  are  seeking  further 
conquests. 

Very  briefly,  then,  consider  how  the  application  of 
scientific  knowledge  has  changed  the  aspect  of  the 
productive  industries.  Thanks  to  science,  farming  is 
no  longer  a  haphazard  trade.  The  up-to-date  farmer 
knows  the  chemical  constitution  of  the  soil;  understands 
what  constituents  are  needed  by  particular  crops  and 
what  fertilizing  methods  to  employ  to  keep  his  land 
from  deteriorating.  He  knows  how  to  select  good  seed 
according  to  the  teaching  of  heredity;  how  to  combat 
fungoid  and  insect  pests  by  chemical  means;  how  to 
meet  the  encroachments  of  the  army  of  weeds.  In 
the  orchard,  he  can  tell  by  the  appearance  of  leaf  and 
bark  whether  the  soil  needs  more  of  nitrogen,  of  pot- 
ash, or  of  humus;  he  uses  sprays  as  a  surgeon  uses 


p 

] 


SOME   RECENT  TRIUMPHS 

antiseptics;  he  introduces  friendly  insects  to  prey 
on  insect  pests;  he  irrigates  or  surface-tills  or  grows 
cover  crops  in  accordance  with  a  good  understanding  of 
the  laws  of  capillarity  as  applied  to  water  in  the  earth's 
crust.  In  barnyard  and  dairy  he  applies  a  knowledge 
of  the  chemistry  of  foods  in  his  treatment  of  flock  and 
herd;  he  ventilates  his  stables  that  the  stock  may  have 
an  adequate  supply  of  oxygen ;  he  milks  his  cows  with 
a  mechanical  apparatus,  extracts  the  cream  with  a 
centrifugal  "separator,"  and  churns  by  steam  or  by 
electric  power. 

In  the  affairs  of  manufacturer  and  transporter  of 
commodities,  methods  are  no  less  revolutionary. 
Steam  power  and  electric  dynamo  everywhere  hold 
sway;  trolley  and  electric  light  and  telephone  have 
found  their  way  to  the  most  distant  hamlet;  electri- 
cians and  experimental  chemists  are  searching  for  new 
methods  in  the  factories;  artificial  stone  is  competing 
with  the  product  of  the  quarries;  artificial  dyes  have 
sounded  the  doom  of  the  madder  and  indigo  industries. 

And  yet  it  requires  no  great  gift  of  prophecy  to  see 
that  what  has  been  accomplished  is  only  an  earnest 
of  what  is  to  come  in  the  not  distant  future.  In  every 
direction  eager  experimenters  are  on  the  track  of  new 
discoveries.  Any  day  a  chance  observation  may  open 
new  and  important  fields  of  exploration,  just  as  Hall's 
observation  about  the  power  of  cryolite  to  absorb 
aluminum  pointed  the  way  to  the  new  aluminum 
industry;  and  as  Birkeland's  chance  observation  of 
the  electric  arc  in  a  magnetic  field  unlocked  the  secret 
of  the  unresponsive  nitrogen.  It  will  probably  not 

[317] 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

be  long,  for  example,  before  a  way  will  be  found  to 
produce  electric  light  without  heat — in  imitation  of 
the  wonderful  lamp  of  the  glow-worm. 

Then  in  due  course  we  must  learn  to  use  fuel  with- 
out the  appalling  waste  that  at  present  seems  unavoid- 
able. A  modern  steam-engine  makes  available  only 
five  to  ten  per  cent,  of  the  energy  that  the  burning 
fuel  gives  out  as  heat — the  rest  is  dissipated  without 
serving  man  the  slightest  useful  purpose.  Moreover, 
the  new  studies  in  radio-activity  have  taught  us  that 
every  molecule  of  matter  locks  up  among  its  whirling 
atoms  and  corpuscles  a  store  of  energy  compared  with 
which  the  energy  of  heat  is  but  a  bagatelle.  It  is 
estimated  that  a  little  pea-sized  fragment  of  radium 
has  energy  enough  in  store — could  we  but  learn  to 
use  it — to  drive  the  largest  steamship  across  the  ocean 
— taking  the  place  of  hundreds  of  tons  of  coal  as  now 
employed.  The  mechanics  of  the  future  must  learn 
how  to  unlock  this  treasury  of  the  molecule;  how  to 
get  at  these  atomic  and  corpuscular  forces,  the  very  ex- 
istence of  which  was  unknown  to  science  until  yester- 
day. The  generation  that  has  learned  that  secret 
will  look  back  upon  the  fuel  problems  of  our  day 
somewhat  as  we  regard  the  flint  and  steel  and  the  open 
fire  of  the  barbarian. 

If  problems  of  energy  offer  such  alluring  possibili- 
ties as  this,  problems  of  matter  are  even  more  inspir- 
ing. The  new  synthetic  chemistry  sets  no  bounds  to 
its  ambitions.  It  has  succeeded  in  manufacturing 
madder,  indigo,  and  a  multitude  of  minor  compounds. 
It  hopes  some  day  to  manufacture  rubber,  starch, 


SOME   RECENT  TRIUMPHS 

sugar — even  albumen  itself,  the  very  basis  of  life. 
Rubber  is  a  relatively  simple  compound  of  hydrogen 
and  carbon;  starch  and  sugar  are  composed  of  hydro- 
gen, carbon,  and  oxygen;  albumen  has  the  same  con- 
stituents, plus  nitrogen.  The  raw  materials  for 
building  up  these  substances  lie  everywhere  about  us 
in  abundance.  A  lump  of  coal,  a  glass  of  water,  and 
a  whiff  of  atmosphere  contain  all  the  nutritive  elements, 
could  we  properly  mix  them,  of  a  loaf  of  bread  or  a 
beefsteak.  And  science  will  never  rest  content  until 
it  has  learned  how  to  make  the  combination.  It  is 
a  long  road  to  travel,  even  from  the  relatively  advanced 
standpoint  of  to-day;  but  sooner  or  later  science  will 
surely  travel  it. 

And  then — who  can  imagine,  who  dare  predict, 
the  social  and  economic  revolution  that  must  follow? 
Our  social  and  business  life  to-day  differs  more  widely 
from  that  of  our  grandfathers  than  theirs  differed  from 
the  life  of  the  Egyptian  and  Babylonian  of  three  thou- 
sand years  ago;  but  this  gap  is  as  ditch  to  canon  com- 
pared with  the  gap  that  separates  us  from  the  life  of 
that  generation  of  our  descendants  which  shall  have 
learned  the  secret  of  making  food-stuffs  from  inor- 
ganic matter  in  the  laboratory  and  factory.  It  is 
a  long  road  to  travel,  I  repeat;  but  modern  science  trav- 
els swiftly  and  with  many  short-cuts,  and  it  may  reach 
this  goal  more  quickly  than  any  conservative  dreamer 
of  to-day  would  dare  to  predict. 

All  speed  to  the  ambitious  voyager! 


APPENDIX 

REFERENCE  LIST  AND  NOTES 
CHAPTER   I 

MAN  AND  NATURE 

For  a  general  discussion  of  primitive  conditions  of  labor  and 
prehistoric  man's  civilization,  it  will  be  of  interest  in  connection 
with  this  chapter  to  consult  volume  I.,  chapter  I.,  which  deals 
with  prehistoric  science.  The  appendix  notes  on  that  chapter 
(vol.  I.,  pp.  302,  303)  refer  to  some  books  which  may  be  consulted 
for  fuller  information  along  the  same  lines. 

CHAPTER  II 

HOW   WORK  IS   DONE 

(p.  31).  For  study  of  Archimedes,  giving  a  detailed  account 
of  his  discoveries,  see  vol.  I.,  p.  196  seq.  It  will  be  of  interest 
also  to  review,  in  connection  with  this  chapter,  the  story  of  the 
growth  of  knowledge  of  mechanics  in  the  time  of  Galileo,  Des- 
cartes, and  Newton  as  told  in  the  chapters  entitled  "  Galileo  and  the 
New  Physics,"  vol.  II.  (p.  93  seq.),  and  "The  Success  of  Galileo 
in  Physical  Science,"  vol.  II.,  p.  204  seq. 

CHAPTER  III 

THE   ANIMAL  MACHINE 

For  further  insight  into  the  activities  of  the  animal  machine, 
the  reader  may  refer  to  various  chapters  on  the  progress  of  phy- 
siology and  anatomy  in  earlier  volumes.  The  following  refer- 
ences will  guide  to  the  accounts  of  the  successive  advances  from 
the  earliest  time: 

Vol.  I.,  pp.  194, 195  describe  briefly  the  earlier  anatomical  studies 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

of  the  Alexandrian  physicians,  Herophilus  and  Erasistratus ;  and 
pp.  282,  283,  outline  the  studies  of  the  famous  physician,  Galen. 

Vol.  II.,  "From  Paracelsus  to  Harvey,"  in  particular,  p.  163 
seq;  and  chapters  IV.  (p.  173  seq.)  and  V.  (p.  202  seq.)  dealing  with 
the  progress  of  anatomy  and  physiology  in  the  eighteenth  and 
nineteenth  centuries  respectively.  The  chapter  on  "Experimental 
Psychology"  (p.  245  seq.}  may  also  be  consulted. 

Vol.  V.,  chapter  V.,  dealing  with  the  Marine  Biological  Labora- 
tory at  Naples  (p.  113  seq.)  and  chapter  VI.,  "Ernst  Haeckel 
and  the  New  Zoology"  (p.  144  seq.)  present  other  aspects  of 
physiological  problems. 

CHAPTER   IV 

THE      WORK      OF      AIR      AND      WATER 

On  page  63  reference  is  made  to  the  work  of  the  old  Greeks, 
Archimedes  and  Ctesibius.  An  account  of  Archimedes'  discov- 
ery of  the  laws  of  buoyancy  of  solids  and  liquids  will  be  found 
in  vol.  I.,  p.  208. 

(p.  64).  The  machines  of  Ctesibius  and  Hero.  See  vol.  I.,  p. 
242  seq.,  for  a  full  account  of  these  mechanisms. 

(p.  65).  Toricelli,  the  pupil  of  Galileo,  and  his  discovery  of 
atmospheric  pressure.  For  a  fuller  account  of  his  discovery  and 
what  came  of  it  see  vol.  II.,  p.  120  seq. 

(p.  66).  Boyle's  experiments  on  atmospheric  pressure.  See 
vol.  II.,  p.  204  seq. 

(p.  66).     Mariotte  and  Von  Guericke.     See  vol.  II.,  p.  210  seq. 

(p.  71).  Roman  mills.  A  scholarly  discussion  of  the  subject 
of  Roman  mills,  based  on  a  comprehensive  study  of  the  references 
in  classical  literature,  is  given  in  Beckmann's  History  of  Inven- 
tions, London,  1846. 

(p.  73).  Recent  advances  in  water  wheels.  As  stated  in  the 
text,  the  quotation  is  from  an  article  on  Motive  Power  Appliances, 
by  Mr.  Edward  H.  Sanborn,  in  the  Twelfth  Census  Report  of  the 
United  States. 

CHAPTER  V 

CAPTIVE  MOLECULES;  THE  STORY  OF  THE  STEAM-ENGINE 

(p.  82).  The  experiments  of  Hero  of  Alexandria.  For  a 
full  account  of  the  experiments  see  vol.  I.,  pp.  249,  250. 

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APPENDIX 

(p.  84).  The  Marquis  of  Worcester's  steam  engine.  The 
original  account  appeared,  as  stated,  in  the  Marquis  of  Worces- 
ter's Century  of  Inventions,  published  in  1663. 

(p.  92).  Newcomen's  engine.  As  stated  in  the  text,  the 
account  of  Newcomen's  engine  is  quoted  from  the  report  of  the 
Department  of  Science  and  Arts  of  the  South  Kensington  Museum, 
now  officially  known  as  the  Victoria  and  Albert  Museum. 

(pp.  107-109).  James  Watt.  The  characterization  of  Watt 
here  given  is  taken  from  an  article  in  an  early  edition  of  the  Edin- 
burgh Encyclopaedia  published  about  the  year  1815. 

CHAPTER  VI 

THE   MASTER   WORKER 

(p.  112).  High-pressure  steam.  The  work  referred  to  is 
Leupold's  Theatrum  Machinarum,  1725. 

(p.  122).  Rotary  Engines.  The  quotation  is  from  the  report 
of  the  Victoria  and  Albert  Museum  above  cited. 

(pp.  127,  128).  Turbine  engines.  The  quotation  is  from 
an  anonymous  article  in  the  London  Times,  August  14,  1007. 

(pp.  129,  130).  Turbine  engines.  The  quotation  is  from 
an  article  on  Motive  Power  Appliances  in  the  Twelfth  Census 
Report  of  the  United  States,  vol.  X.,  part  IV.,  by  Mr.  Edward  H. 
Sanborn. 

CHAPTER  VII 

GAS   AND  OIL  ENGINES 

(PP-  I35>  J3^>  J37)-  Gas  engines.  Quoted  from  the  report  of 
the  Victoria  and  Albert  Museum  above  cited. 

(pp.  141-144).  Gas  engines  and  steam  engines  in  the  United 
States.  Quoted  from  the  report  of  the  Special  Agents  of  the 
Twelfth  Census  of  the  United  States,  1902. 

(pp.  146,  147).  The  Svea  heater.  From  an  article  by  Mr. 
G.  Emil  Hesse  in  The  American  Inventor  for  April  15,  1905. 

CHAPTER  VIII 

THE   SMALLEST   WORKERS 

In  connection  with  this  chapter  the  reader  will  do  well  to  re- 
view various  earlier  portions  of  the  work  outlining  the  general 

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THE   CONQUEST  OF  NATURE 

history  of  the  growth  of  knowledge  of  electricity  and  magnetism. 
For  example : 

Vol.  II.,  p.  in  seq.,  for  an  account  of  William  Gilbert's  study 
of  magnetism;  pp.  213,  215  describing  first  electrical  machine; 
and  chapter  XIV.,  "The  Progress  of  Electricity  from  Gilbert 
and  Von  Guericke  to  Franklin,"  p.  259  seq. 

Vol.  III.,  chapter  VIL,  "  The  Modern  Development  of  Elec- 
tricity and  Magnetism,"  p.  229  seq. 

Vol.  V.,  p.  92  seq.,  the  section  on  Prof.  J.  J.  Thompson  and  the 
nature  of  electricity. 

Other  chapters  that  may  be  advantageously  reviewed  in  con- 
nection with  the  present  one  are  the  following: 

Vol.  III.,  chapter  VI.,  "Modern  Theories  of  Heat  and  Light," 
p.  206  seq.;  chapter  VIII.,  "The  Conservation  of  Energy,"  p. 
253  seq.;  and  chapter  IX.,  "The  Ether  and  Ponderable  Matter," 
p.  283  seq. 

CHAPTER   IX 

MAN'S  NEWEST  CO-LABORER:  THE  DYNAMO 

The  references  just  given  for  chapter  VIII.  apply  equally  here. 
The  experiments  of  Oersted  and  Faraday  are  detailed  in  vol. 
III.,  p.  236  seq. 

CHAPTER  X 

NIAGARA  IN  HARNESS 

Same  references  as  for  chapters  VIII.  and  IX. 
CHAPTER  XI 

THE   BANISHMENT   OF   NIGHT 

(p.  22 1).  Davy  and  the  electric  light.  The  quotation  here 
given  is  reproduced  from  vol.  III.,  pp.  234,  235.  The  very  great 
importance  and  general  interest  of  the  subject  seem  to  justify  the 
repetition,  descriptive  of  this  first  electric  light.  Davy's  original 
paper  was  given  at  the  Royal  Institution  in  1810. 

(p.  237).  "Peter  Cooper  Hewitt— Inventor,"  by  Ray  Stan- 
nard  Baker,  in  McClure's  Magazine,  June,  1903,  p.  172. 

In  connection  with  the  problem  of  color  of  the  light  emitted  by 

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APPENDIX 

Mr.  Hewitt's  mercury-vapor  tube,  the  chapter  on  "Newton  and 
the  Composition  of  Light"  (vol.  II.,  p.  225  seq.)  may  be  consulted. 
Also  "Modern  Theories  of  Heat  and  Light,"  vol.  III.,  p.  206  seq. 

CHAPTER  XII 

THE   MINERAL   DEPTHS 

The  chapter  on  "The  Origin  and  Development  of  Modern 
Geology,"  vol.  III.,  p.  116  seq.,  may  be  read  in  connection  with 
the  allied  subjects  here  treated. 

In  preparing  the  section  on  the  use  of  electricity  in  mining,  the 
article  by  Thomas  Commerford  Martin,  entitled  Electricity  in 
Mining,  in  the  United  States  Census  Report  of  1905,  has  been 
freely  drawn  upon.  The  quotations  on  pp.  262,  266,  268,  and 
270  are  from  that  source. 

CHAPTER   XIII 

THE  AGE  OF  STEEL 

See  note  under  chapter  XII. 

CHAPTER  XIV 

SOME  RECENT  TRIUMPHS  OF  APPLIED  SCIENCE 

In  connection  with  various  portions  of  this  chapter  the  reader 
will  find  much  that  is  of  interest  in  the  story  of  chemical  develop- 
ment in  general  as  detailed  in  volume  III.,  pp.  3-72  inclusive. 

Also  various  chapters  on  electricity  as  outlined  under  chapter 
VII.  above. 

(p.  310).  Nitrogen  from  the  air.  The  quotation  is  from  the 
Engineering  Supplement  of  the  London  Times,  January  22,  1908. 


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